I am at home this week and enjoying relaxing, resting and reading and have been catching up on some really fun and interesting reads. As per I am getting behind with my reviews so I will be trying to catch up on all ro my recent goodies over the next few days.
Let us start with The Great Impersonation - E Phillips Oppenheim. This has been republished by The British Library who are making a great impression with all the long forgotten titles which they are bringing back to the notice of the public. I am the recipient of their largesse and am very grateful indeed as they are all great fun.
This particular title is simply terrific. A John Buchan type ripping yarn full of heroics, bravery, love of one's country, an impersonation and two beautiful women, one an adventuress and one a loving wife. Oh and a double bluff/twist. What more could you want?
A disgraced British aristocrat, Everard Diminey, wrongly accused of murder and driving his wife to insanity, fled to East Africe and there he has languished and lived a hopeless and aimless life. One day he stumbles out of the bush, ill and alone, and comes face to face with the German Baron Ragenstein. They knew each other at university and look so like each other that they were often mixed up by their friends. Diminey stays with him recovering his health and strength and Ragenstein, who is also exiled for killing someone in a duel, is sent on a mission to redeem himself and the arrival of Diminey is essential to his plans. He plots Diminey's murder and returns to England, as a rich and successful reformed aristocrat, taking his place at the heart of English society where he can report back to his German masters on the English attitude to the possibility of war between the two countries.
But his disguise is in danger when dining at a restaurant he is approached by Princess Eiderstrom, his former lover, who has recognised him:
'Her red gold hair gleamed beneath her black hat. She was tall, a Grecian type of figure, large without being course, majestic though still young. She carried a little dog under one arm and a plain black silk bag, on which there was a coronet in platinum and diamonds in the other hand.
"You mean to deny that you are Leopold von Ragenstein? You do not know me?"
"Madame" he answered "It is not my great pleasure. I am Everard Diminey"
But she is not fooled and he realises his disguise is in danger.
OK not saying any more. Just to say that the author who died in 1946 was one of the most popular and successful writers of spy fiction in the early twentieth century and was known in his time as the Prince of Storytellers. He wrote over 100 novels of which The Great Impersonation has always been the most acclaimed.
Loved every moment of it and waiting for my attention is another by this author The Spy Paramount and I am really looking forward to reading that one as well. Will report back soon.
