Executed in 1922 for his involvement in Irish republicanism, Erskine Childers is most remembered today for this groundbreaking 1903 classic of spy fiction, "the first modern thriller" (Times, London). In a story set during the long suspicious years leading up to World War I, a young man accepts an invitation to join a friend on a sailing holiday in the Baltic. But what begins as an exploration of the mysteries of seamanship becomes a gripping suspense as these two young adventurers discover a German plot to invade England via the Frisian Islands of the North Sea.
"A thriller anticipating Frederick Forsyth and Len Deighton ... [that] never loses pace."—Independent on Sunday
