Showing results by author "E. Phillips Oppenheim" in All Categories

The Zeppelin’s Passenger is a tale of German espionage in England during World War I. Dreymarsh is a fictional "backwater” area in England with no apparent military value. The story begins with Dreymarsh residents discovering an observation car from a German zeppelin along with a Homburg hat near Dreymarsh. The mystery is further complicated when an Englishman, Mr. Hamar Lessingham, presents himself at Mainsail Haul which is the residence of Sir Henry Cranston.

Havoc occurs when European countries are discussing covert alliances. The story revolves around the creation of a secret alliance between Germany, Russia, and Austria. The English hope to split Russia away by holding the Czar to his previous public commitments, but they need proof of what was done to create the pressure. All the pressures that lead to WWI are there, but the intrigues and secret treaties create an interesting background to the twists and turns of the plot.

A former defense attorney turned righteous crusader is the hero of this blockbuster novel from an early master of the thriller genre. A businessman is found stabbed through the heart, the obvious suspect his partner: Oliver Hilditch, a cold-eyed fellow with a paper-thin alibi. Hilditch seems destined for the gallows, but he is saved by brilliant defense attorney Francis Ledsam, who uses every legal trick he knows to free his client.

Stirling Deane has sold the Little Anna Gold Mine which he discovered in South Africa. The sale has made him a rich man and the head of the company to which he sold the mine. A former acquaintance from his days in South Africa has shown up and claims that he has the original deed to the mine and that he is in fact the owner of the mine. Shortly after a meeting with Deane, the man is found murdered and the deed he claims to have had is missing.

It is during World War I. A chemist, Sandy Graham, has discovered a new powerful explosive, but he lets it slip in a London restaurant that he has made the discovery. Graham is ready to join some friends for luncheon at the restaurant but chooses to clean up before joining them. He never comes out of the restroom. Several spies from different governments set out to find him and the formula. This espionage novel is from 1918, but it could just as easily have been from today.

"It is an easy task," Selingman declared. "This young man is your slave. Whatever your daily business may be here, some part of your time, I imagine, will be spent in his company. Let me know what manner of man he is. Is this innate corruptness which brings him so easily to the bait, or is it the stinging smart of injustice from which he may well be suffering? Or, failing these, has he dared to set his wits against mine, to play the double traitor? If even a suspicion of this should come to you, there must be an end of Mr. Francis Norgate."

This is a story of intrigue, unfolding in the author's best style - a thrilling narrative of Jocelyn Thew and the English Service. The reader will follow with avidity the daring moves of Thew from the time he sails from New York on the "City of Boston," accompanied by a dying man and a special nurse in the person of Katharine Beverley, a society girl who is under obligations to Thew.

Herbert Wrayson, a bachelor returns to his flat one night to find a young lady rifling his desk. He questions her and finds she thought she was in the apartment of his neighbor, Morris Barnes, who lives above him. While he is on the telephone, she quietly slips out of his flat and heads to Barnes' abode. A few hours later, she is once again at his door - this time looking scared and faint. She asks Wrayson to escort her downstairs as the hallway is unlit. As they emerge, a hansom sits at the doorway with Morris Barnes in it. But, they discover that Barnes has been strangled.

You're in luck, Alfred," he declared. "That's the most interesting man in New York - one of the most interesting in the world. That's Sanford Quest." "Who's he?" "You haven't heard of Sanford Quest?" "Never in my life." The young man whose privilege it was to have been born and lived all his days in New York, drank half a glassful of wine and leaned back in his chair. Words, for a few moments, were an impossibility. "Sanford Quest," he pronounced at last, "is the greatest master in criminology the world has ever known. He is a magician, a scientist, the Pierpont Morgan of his profession."

"The thing happened so suddenly that I really had very little time to make up my mind what course to adopt under somewhat singular circumstances. I was seated at my favorite table against the wall on the right-hand side in Stephano’s restaurant, with a newspaper propped up before me, a glass of hock by my side, and a portion of the plat du jour, which happened to be chicken en casserole, on the plate in front of me."

A German advocate of the Kaiser discovers he is a facial/physical match for young Englishman Everard Dominey, who is near death after harrowing experiences in Africa. The remarkable doppelgänger resemblance leads Major-General Baron Leopold Von Ragastein to infiltrate the UK in perfect disguise. He wants to lead his country’s efforts as Europe is racing toward war. Part of the plan is to murder Dominey and have the Baron take his place in English society.

The setting is the years prior to the outbreak of World War I. It is a time when Germany is outwardly preparing for war, but Britain continues to believe it is invincible and that no one would challenge her. A vast German spy network flourishes in England, often in plain view. The main character is Francis Norgate, an aspiring British diplomat who falls in disfavor with his superiors for defending a woman while stationed in Berlin. The resulting scandal causes Norgate to be recalled.

'The Table Under the Tree' is the story of a mysterious murder which takes place one evening on a crowded restaurant terrace in France. The moon disappears behind a cloud, and in the momentary darkness a cry rings out.

Neap-Tide Madness is the strange story of Sir Jaspar Slane's visits to the Dormy House in Norfolk. One foggy evening Slane glimpses the figure of a man emerge from the mist carrying a hunting rifle. The figure raises his gun and shoots at Slane from close quarters, narrowly misses him and vanishes again into the mist. When he makes it back to the Dormy House, Slane learns that the loose madman is the mysterious Mark Rennett - a fishman and hunter who lives in a ramshackle cottage on the marshes with his extraordinarily beautiful wife.

Sir Wingrave Seton allowed himself to be imprisoned for nine years rather than betraying a lady's honor. He seeks revenge by acquiring immense wealth for the sole purpose of destroying the lives of others. But a new young lover slowly starts to thaw the Malefactor's icy heart, prompting him to abandon his misanthropic plans. Is it too late?

Questo thriller ci porta in una storia di spionaggio ambientata sulla costa del Norfolk, e alla vigilia della grande guerra. Il libro fu infatti scritto nel 1914. Come negli altri romanzi dell'autore, il noir è sempre accompagnato da tocchi di rosa, e non è mai truce o angosciante.

Questo autore di thriller racconta di un'investigatrice che, non contenta di rispondere alla piccola posta di una rivista femminile, entra in contatto con la malavita londinese, forse spinta da motivi sentimentali. Ma non aspettatevi un romanzetto giallorosa, anche se potreste essere ingannati dal tono brillante: il noir è in agguato dietro ad ogni strada, come può capitare a Londra.

An Englishman is enjoying his dinner at Stephano's, at which he is a regular diner. A man enters quickly, sits at his table, starts eating his food, and hands him a packet underneath the table! So begins Paul Walmsley's acquaintance - and adventures - with American adventurer Joseph H. Parker and his lovely daughter, Eve.

The mysterious Mr. Laxworthy, a fictional character created by E. Phillips Oppenheim in 1913, hires two ex-cons for a job in the south of France. But the self-described "adventurer" isn't after money. His eyes are on greater prizes - the most valuable secret of the French navy and the reputation of two very important men.