Edward Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) was the earliest writer of spy fiction as understood today, inventing the „rogue male” school of adventure thrillers and writing over 150 novels of all sorts. In „The Golden Beast”, a woman curses her lover’s father, a baron, who had her gamekeeper father hanged. Years afterward, three of the baron’s descendants disappear in a manner that baffles Scotland Yard, appearing they were the victims of that ancient curse. Written in 1925, with...

Matravers is „an Apostle of Aestheticism” with „fixed views of life, down to even it’s most trifling details.” „A poet, philosopher, and man of fashion” who has „no intimate friends.” He writes for the London papers and reviews. One evening he is taken to the theater by a friend to see a „Norwegian” play by Istein, which he savages in his review. However the actress who plays the lead, Berenice, is brilliant, and is the same woman with whom he has been exchanging coy glance...

A collection of unconnected but all featuring the same protagonist, gentlemen amateur detective Slane. Sir Jasper Slane, wealthy clubman, and amateur detective, is always willing to help his fellow aristocrats in need. With the able assistance of Inspector Stimpson of Scotland Yard, he solves thefts, rescues kidnapped victims, foils blackmailers, and helps to restore fortunes. Because of his upper class morality, Slane is perhaps more diffident than some other Oppenheim her...

Romans z elementami powieści gotyckiej oraz powieści tajemnic. Bogaty Anglik zakochuje się w córce włoskiego arystokraty, który mieszka na wyspie Cruta w rejonie Morza Śródziemnego. Absolutna klasyka mistrza wśród twórców powieści sensacyjnych...

„The Black Box” is a series of loosely connected short stories detailing the adventures of Sanford Quest, world’s greatest criminologist. The story starts off in New York City, travels to England, Egypt, and around the world to San Francisco, then into the wild west of New Mexico. There are two main plot lines which merge into one along with romance mixed in with the ever present danger. Melodramatic, episodic, supernatural. It’s all great fun and Oppenheim keeps the action...

Phillip Romilly is a poor art teacher in London, half-starved, both mentally and physically. His cousin, Douglas, has everything and even buys Beatrice, Philip’s fiancée. He strangles Douglas, throws him in the canal, and assumes his identity. Douglas had booked passage to America for the next day, so after a pleasant sea voyage Phillip arrives at the Waldorf Hotel in New York as Douglas Romilly. Philip’s career in New York is filled with incident. On his wedding day, he is...

This is another collection of interlinked short stories about the good life in Monte Carlo and Beausoleil after the first World War. Ten stories about Peter Hames, the former Inspector on the New York police department that got tossed off the force when he tried to stop an innocent man being railroaded by a corrupt police force. Disillusioned, but after inheriting a million dollars, he moves to France to become a painter. But the detective instincts never left and he gets i...

It is strange to find Mr. Phillips Oppenheim choosing as his hero an earnest politician with a love for social reform. „Nobody’s Man” starts out as a standard whodunit murder mystery then makes an abrupt lane-change into British politics of the mid-1920’s. Brigadier general Andrew Tallente, late of Parliament, is implicated in the death of his male secretary, the son of a classmate at Eton. Seems the younger man may have not only been having an affair with the hero’s Americ...

E. Phillips Oppenheim was a popular 20th century writer best known for penning suspenseful thriller novels like „The Mystery of Mr. Bernard Brown”. Many of his more than 100 novels are still read today. His novels and short stories have all the elements of blood-racing adventure and intrigue and are precursors of modern-day spy fictions. „Nicholas Goade, Detective” is a collection of short mysteries about a Scotland Yard detective on holiday. As he travels across England wi...

„Mr. Mirakel” is the last novel written by E. Phillips Oppenheim in 1943. Marquis Roderigo de Cordovina is leaving his Portuguese estates in Lisbon because he is being pressured to join the German military and command a mechanical battalion. He meets Miss Anne Strangeways in the seaplane terminal. The two board an airboat for London. Shortly thereafter, they meet again at the home of Princess Rosina Di Gomez who is the niece of the Portuguese Ambassador. At this point the p...

The man was awaiting the service of his dinner in the magnificent buffet of the Gare de Lyon. He sat at a table laid for three, on the right-hand side of the entrance and close to the window. From below came the turmoil of the trains. In appearance he was of somewhat less than medium height, of unathletic, almost frail, physique. His head was thrust a little forward, as though he were afflicted with a chronic stoop. He wore steel-rimmed spectacles with the air of one who ha...

Joseph P. Cray is an American manufacturer who has just completed a year serving coffee to the troops in France during World War 1. He is motivated by good will, and also to escape his American second wife who is the head of a temperance organization. With sybaritic glee, he returns to London, dons civilian garb, and enjoys his first cocktail. He is soon joined by his daughter, the beautiful Lady Sara Sittingbourne, who lives in London. Together the two seek „adventure” in ...

A young adventurer steals two complimentary idols of Buddha from a Chinese temple, one of which is supposed to have a debasing and malevolent effect upon its owners. One of the idols represents the Body, and all of the corruption and evil of Mankind, the other represents the Soul, and all that is good. The Ballastons are a spendthrift aristocratic family threatened with the loss of their ancestral home due to large debts. The son steals these idols, ends up with just the na...

Julian Orden, son of a British aristocrat attends a dinner party and meets Catherine, a young woman of mixed antecedents – British and Russian. She is entrusted with important documents. When she is suspected of being a spy and arrested, she saves herself by giving the papers into the keeping of young Orden. A beautiful, intelligent young woman – is she a traitorous spy or a patriot? These two characters become caught up in a plan by the leaders of the working people of Ger...

British author E. Phillips Oppenheim achieved worldwide fame with his thrilling novels and short stories concerning, mystery, international espionage and intrigue. Many of his novels have been adapted for the screen. Mr. Oppenheim can be depended upon to give his plots that turn which is as admirable as it is unexpected, and „The Seven Conundrums” is one of the best of his many good and exciting books. His plotting is as smooth as silk, with the virtue of creating believabl...

E. Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) was an internationally renowned author of mystery and espionage thrillers. His novels and short stories have all the elements of blood-racing adventure and intrigue and are precursors of modern-day spy fictions. 1924’s „The Wrath to Come” is one of his novels that are „fascinating extrapolations of the political dangers that faced Europe and America in the first half of the twentieth century”. This novel is very occasionally mentioned as be...

A breathtaking tale of intrigue, romance, and revenge from one of the twentieth century’s most prolific and popular authors of suspense. „The Wicked Marquis” is a story of privilege and the attempt to keep what has been lost. Marquis will go to any length to get enough money to enjoy his title, including forcing one of his daughters to marry an unsuitable candidate with money. Although this novel was published in 1919, its setting and subject is more consistent with a pre-w...

England has not been invited to attend a conference of European nations in the Hague. Some think war is about to break out. „The Vanished Messenger” presents the international intrigue and conspiracy of the Powers against England to separate her from her colonies. Mr. John P. Dunster, an American, is traveling to the Hague with an important document that may prevent the outbreak of war when he mysteriously disappears after a train wreck in England. Richard Hamel is asked by...

The secretive financier and Press baron Warren Rand is working to bring about Global Peace and Disarmament, against the plotting of England, France, Germany, and Russia. The story expands to include the chief characters in Rands life: his security chief a British officer Tellesom who falls in love with Rand’s estranged daughter, the financier John Glynde and a large cast of evil Russian and German spies. His machinations of the gold market and international sabotage bring t...

This third novel by Oppenheim was published in 1895. It was originally published under the title „A Daughter of the Marionis” and was reprinted several times. The story of a vendetta, makes a capital plot for the novelist who takes characters from Southern life for his story, and in Margharita, „a daughter of the Marionis,” we have a not impossible character. She does not appear till late in the story, but takes up the vendetta of her uncle with a will. Marionis himself is ...

A best-selling author of novels, short stories, magazine articles, translations, and plays, Oppenheim published over 150 books. He is considered one of the originators of the thriller genre, his novels also range from spy thrillers to romance, but all have an undertone of intrigue. The tiny kingdom of Theos is surrounded by Eastern European powers in this 1902 novel of politics, war, and romance. Russia and Turkey are plotting to take over the peaceful and rural country. A ...

A very interesting and early novel is extremely popular in the 1920s and 1940s by the famous author E. Phillips Oppenheim. It differs from its later works, here are considered more gloomy themes and a tragic plot. This story tells of a wealthy Englishman who fell in love with the daughter of an Italian nobleman who lives on the island of Krutha in the Mediterranean Sea. The very dark influence of the Catholic Church in this period will not prevent the victory of love and ha...

Miss Mott quickly rose from the sound of knocking at her office door. She was engaged in the typical task of writing her advice to a young woman whose relationship with the acquisition had been pulled in, and she forgot the flight time. Her typist left, her ambassador was a boy and a shy but very nice young clerk who helped her in various activities. In other words, Miss Mott was alone on the top floor of the building, not far from Adelphi, and she did not wait for the subs...

The usual little throng of Americans, journalists, men of business and loiterers, were occupying their accustomed chairs in one corner of the long, green-carpeted room. Around the bar, would-be customers were crowded three or four deep–many of them stalwart Canadians in khaki, making the most of their three days’ leave, and a thin sprinkling of men about town on their way to lunch in the grill-room adjoining. On the outskirts of the group was a somewhat incongruous figure, ...