A striking romantic novel of 1913 of a young Englishman’s uphill fight. Douglas Guest is an orphan, raised by a stern, religious, and uncompromising uncle, Gideon Strong, in the North of England. His uncle orders him to marry his cousin and take up the post of cleric in their small town but he confronts his uncle, takes money which was intended for his education, and escapes to London. On the train, he meets the beautiful Countess Emily de Reuss, who takes an interest in hi...

This is a mystery novel surrounding German intrigue and bauxite mining in typical Oppenheim style. E. Phillips Oppenheim was the self-styled „prince of storytellers” and composed some one hundred and fifty novels, mainly of the suspense and international intrigue nature, but including romances, comedies, and parables of everyday life. In this one, Beverley, a handsome tycoon, operates an unknown bauxite mine in mythical kingdom of Orlac, and wages a battle of wits against G...

Mr. Roger Ferrison has just returned to London after several years of living rough in Canada. He takes a small room in the boarding house run by Mrs. Dewar. There he meets the bewitching invalid Fiona Quayne who rapidly develops a consuming passion for Ferrison. Meanwhile, back at the Boarding House, Colonel Dennett is murdered. One suspects from the very beginning that not all of the boarders at Mrs. Dewar’s establishment in Palace Crescent are what they appear to be, and ...

A wonderful old fashioned spy story set in the 1930’s. Like other Oppenheim romances of diplomacy, intrigue and espionage, this latest one poses a critical situation in the relationships of European powers which threatens the immediate out-break of war. „The Spy Paramount” takes us to Rome, 1934. American Martin Fawley, a former secret service agent, is recruited as a spy by General Berati, the most feared man in fascist Italy. Suave and worldly, Fawley is quite at home in ...

This 1929 novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim neatly describes some of the frothy financial dealings of the late stage of the roaring 20’s in England and centered around a commercial chemical formula. The formula for the process is carefully guarded from it’s own employees, but is stolen one night by a band of five adventurers who plan to ransom it for 1 million pounds. Two men are killed during the robbery. Plans to ransom the process are put on hold, and the documents are depo...

„The Little Gentleman from Okehampstead” is a collection of connected stories about Mendel Honeywood, a diminutive insurance agent who skips out on his family and his hometown of Okehampstead, Massachusetts, and arrives in England, without a cent, to enter into a life of „crime”. He meets up with James Van Clarence Smith, disinherited scion of the wealthy American millionaires, and Lady Felicia Lakenham, upper-class, with a very small income. These three engage in somewhat ...

In this tale of espionage set during World War I Britain, we encounter a variety of characters. Surgeon-Major General Hugh Thomson, the works apparent antagonist, who is endeavoring to clear the British troops of spies. He is on the trail of a German master spy who seems to be able to travel across the lines and back and forth between Germany and England. Captain Granet is a wounded war hero recently awarded the DSO and recovering after having been captured twice and escapi...

In this funny satire, Oppenheim offers us an argument that has been used in several movies: Two brothers come into a large inheritance with a pre-condition that they need to spend a big amount of money within a month. In the letter from their deceased father, they are enjoined to learn how to spend as well as that have learned how to save. The story deals with their noble efforts to spend their money without waste or ostentation. They back a musical comedy, finance a gold c...

Roger Sloane jest młodym Amerykaninem mieszkającym na Lazurowym Wybrzeżu pod koniec lat dwudziestych. Spotyka starego kolegę z klasy, który wędruje po Europie po odziedziczeniu tytułu w Anglii. Dwaj przyjaciele wraz z grupą dyletantów z wyższych klas walczą ze złowrogimi siłami gangu amerykańskich przemytników, którzy porzucili Nowy Jork i założyli wyrafinowany syndykat przestępczy na południu Francji.Napad, morderstwo, tajne kryjówki, szybkie samochody i piękne kobiety – wsz...

Edward Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) was an English novelist, in his lifetime a major and successful writer of genre fiction. This novel is an Oppenheim classic from 1919 about a high society villain: characteristic of Oppenheim’s typical works, with the characters living in luxury, and a very flowing and exact story. Much of Oppenheim’s work possesses a unique escapist charm, featuring protagonists who delight in Epicurean meals, surroundings of intense luxury, and the re...

Alfred Burton, a smooth-talking salesman, is having a perfectly ordinary day on the job when he stumbles across a strange plant with green leaves and a cluster of queer little brown beans hanging down from them in an old house. The virtue of the beans is that he who eats one shall see nothing, think nothing, say nothing but the truth. Alfred Burton has a well-meaning, rather ordinary wife who becomes unendurable to him, and he falls in love with a charming girl who would ha...

The Princess opened her eyes at the sound of her maid’s approach. She turned her head impatiently toward the door. „Annette,” she said coldly, „did you misunderstand me? Did I not say that I was on no account to be disturbed this afternoon? „ Annette was the picture of despair. Eyebrows and hands betrayed alike both her agitation of mind and her nationality.

General Besserley sat before his writing-table, drawn close up to the wide-flung windows of his summer-house, his pen clasped in his idle fingers, his eyes wandering though a tangle of drooping roses and clematis beyond the gardens below to where a car was crawling up the mountain road. He leaned a little sideways and touched a bell. In a few moments a white-coated butler opened the door and approached the table.

Mr. Hamer Wildburn, a young American, graduate of Harvard is wintering on the Mediterranean coast of France in his newly purchased yacht „The Bird of Paradise”, and is puzzled by the desire he finds in visitors coming aboard at different times to buy the vessel from him. One night he is awoken at 3 am by the cries of a beautiful, and wearing priceless emeralds, woman swimming alongside. She comes aboard and offers to buy the yacht for twice what he paid. The next day, the f...

E. Phillips Oppenheim wrote most famously of secret agents and duplicitous diplomats, secret treaties and international conspiracies, moonlit Riviera casinos, Swiss hotel suites, perilous yacht trips, and glamorous trans-European express trains. Known in his time as „the Prince of Storytellers,” Oppenheim, like the brand names of today’s best seller lists, offered readers in the first half of the 20th century a steady, predictable, and entertaining supply of pop fiction. „T...

This is a very early novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim from 1897. The wealthy and bored Lord Hildyard, Marquis of Esholt, is on a yachting tour with a group of friends, including his kept lover, Pauline Owston. When Hildyard spies an apparently uninhabited island, he slips off the ship in search of adventure. In the middle of the night, he hears wonderful violin music and finds a young and beautiful girl, Bertha, playing in the forest. She is accompanied by a cruel and misshap...

Uncommon Oppenheim novel tells a strong story of the complicated love affairs, thrilling and mystifying revelations in the life of a young occult. Mr. Henry Rochester is an honest and honorable landowner in rural England. One evening he is walking his estate when he happens across the boy who is meditating on a hillside, and after a conversation, takes it into his head to give the boy money and see what he’ll make of himself. Unfortunately, he also tells the boy that if he ...

Lady Wilhemina Thorpe-Hatton lives a life of extraordinary wealth and privilege. She is visiting her extensive estate in England, which includes the town of Thorpe, and all it’s inhabitants. When Victor Macheson, a young man chock full of ideals and theories about how to make the world a better place, petitions her for the use of a barn where he can speak on these subjects, she refuses. He is dismissed and harried out of town by the son of the estate manager Stephan Hurd. B...

This story takes place before WWI and follows the adventures of a disgraced English politician who hasn’t given up on his country in her hour of need. His nemesis is a suave but evil German prince who is plotting the downfall of he British empire. The only thing that stands in his way is our hero... and two beautiful women. „The Mischief-Maker” presents a fascinating picture of the political mindset of the day to go along with the twists and turns of the story. And so on, a...

„The Milan Grill Room” is a series of ten connected short stories featuring the character of Louis, a crippled veteran of World War I and maître d’hôtel, who solves crimes from his table in the Grill Room of the hotel and who is able to provide invaluable assistance to the British police and Secret Service. Tracking spies, catching traitors, uncovering plots, often in the company of Major Charles Lyson of the Secret Service, Louis is never ruffled, and always resourceful. T...

A detective and very mysterious story. Mr. Sabin is called out of blissful retirement to search for his missing wife. He believes Lucille to be kidnapped by members of a secret society of aristocrats. It is interesting to watch Mr. Sabin control himself and walk with such dignity and aristocratic bearing and tact, even as he plots to save his own life and reunite with his beloved Lucille. „The Yellow Crayon” presents a fascinating picture of the political mindset of the day...

The mystery by E. Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) starts out in the Sierra Nevada mountains, 500 miles from San Francisco, at a gold mining camp. Bryan came to America from England, chasing a man who may have papers which explain Bryan’s mysterious origins. Enter heroine, the beautiful orphan Myra Mercier who is arriving to the camp where women are not allowed. Murder and mayhem ensue before the pair escapes to San Francisco. Bryan abandons Myra and travels back to England a...

Mystery novel by E. Phillips Oppenheim involving a handicapped art collector. The book concerns recently demobbed and down on his luck Major Owston, who becomes the bodyguard of the deformed amoral art collector Martin Hews. Enabled by his enormous wealth to buy the world’s most beautiful works of art. Hews is plunged into a bitter rivalry with a gang leader simply known as „Joseph”. This is a thrilling and tense story of a struggle between master brains, of gang wars, of d...

Sir Joseph is a brilliant surgeon from Australia who went mad after operating on vast numbers of soldiers during World War 1. His terrible hobby is cutting people’s heads open to steal bits of their brains. His wife is a former nurse who went mad alongside him. They are pursued across England and the continent by Mr. Daniel Rocke, codebreaker of the Foreign service: Miss Ann Lancaster, daughter of one of Londe’s victims, and Sir Francis Worton, known as Q20, head of the sec...