Russian nihilists, dangerous dames, exotic poisons, deception, hypnotism and murder are just some of the elements in this collection of short stories, published early in Le Queux's career. Most of the plots involve pre-Hitchcockian heroes being duped by a various cast of cosmopolitan femme fatales with different agendas, not always iniquitous in nature. The storytelling is fast and fun. (Goodreads)
William Tufnell Le Queux (2 July 1864 – 13 October 1927) was an Anglo-French journalist and writer. He was also a diplomat (honorary consul for San Marino), a traveller (in Europe, the Balkans and North Africa), a flying buff who officiated at the first British air meeting at Doncaster in 1909, and a wireless pioneer who broadcast music from his own station long before radio was generally available; his claims regarding his own abilities and exploits, however, were usually exaggerated. His best-known works are the anti-French and anti-Russian invasion fantasy The Great War in England in 1897 (1894) and the anti-German invasion fantasy The Invasion of 1910 (1906), the latter becoming a bestseller.