Erskine Childers

The Riddle of the Sands annotated Erskine Childers

The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service is a 1903 novel by Erskine Childers. The book, which enjoyed immense popularity in the years before World War I, is an early example of the espionage novel and was extremely influential in the genre of spy fiction. He arrives to find that Davies has a small sailing boat not the comfortable crewed yacht that he expected. The Germans are linking the canals and the railways, dredging passages through the shifting sands and hiding a fleet of tugs and barges. The only explanation is that they are going to secretly transport a powerful German army across the North Sea to invade Britain's east coast. As they sail across the North Sea, Dolman commits suicide by jumping overboard, presumably to avoid disgrace and probable arrest.