The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers

I have long heard of The Riddle of the Sands as one of the first thrillers, and was intrigued that the British newspaper, The Guardian, has listed it as one of the best ten spy novels of all time. I may have even tried to read it before, but got lost in the technical information about sailing. Listening to the audiobook made all the difference.

The book begins with Charles Carruthers, a bored young man looking for a way to fill up his vacation time before going back to work in the Foreign Office. He receives a message from Arthur Davies, a university acquaintance, inviting him on a yachting holiday in the Baltic Sea. When he arrives with all of his baggage, he discovers that the “yacht” is a tiny disheveled boat and that the holiday is not going to be at all as he expected. In fact, he and Davies are in for the adventure of their lives.

As they explore the Frisian Islands off the coast of Germany, they stumble upon some suspicious activities that seem to point to a possible German invasion of England. (As I read, I assumed, of course, that this novel was written during WWI or WWII, but was surprised to discover it was written in 1903 at a time when nobody considered that a possibility. No wonder it was a thriller!)

I could not put this book down. It’s a good thing my husband was travelling while I listened because I would have ignored him for the three days that I carried my cell phone around with me to finish it. The narration by Anton Lesser was stellar. His inflections were outstanding. When the dialogue called for whispering, heavy breathing, dry wit, male/female voices, or foreign accents, he did it all with perfection. He had me hanging on every word – even the “boring” bits about boating!

I was intrigued not only by the book but by its author’s interesting history. He was born in London in 1870, grew up in England, and served in the Second Boer War (1899-1902). Later he became disenchanted with British Imperialism and became involved in Irish republicanism (a movement to free Ireland from British rule), even smuggling guns into Ireland in 1914. Although he served England during WW1, he was later blacklisted by the British for his support of the IRA, even being called “the mischief-making murderous renegade” by Winston Churchill. In the end, he was shot by a firing squad, not for his anti-British activities, but for being caught carrying a pistol, which was in violation of the Emergency Powers Resolution. He was fifty-two years old.

Blessings,