Erskine Childers: The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service (Penguin Classics) [2007] mass_market LBIOG as a young doctor in

as a young doctor in a working-class suburb in Paris

and in the Templars he finds the perfect subject' Sunday Times

for he has sworn to protect the baby daughter of Fantine

Do the dead sing

having failed to save his own son from the plague

Erskine Childers: The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service (Penguin Classics) [2007] mass_market LBIOG as a young doctor inChilders' lone masterpiece, "The Riddle of the Sands", considered the first modern spy thriller, is recognisable as the brilliant forerunner of the realism of Graham Greene and John le Carre. Its unique flavour comes from its fine characterization, richly authentic background of inshore sailing and vivid evocation of the late 1890s an atmosphere of mutual suspicion and intrigue that was soon to lead to war.