The White Lie

The White Lie (1915) is a mystery novel by Anglo-French writer William Le Queux. Published at the height of Le Queux’s career as a leading author of popular thrillers, The White Lie is a story of espionage, mystery, and murder. Using his own research and experience as a journalist and adventurer, Le Queux crafts an accessible, entertaining tale for readers in search of a literary escape. Known for his works of fiction and nonfiction on the possibility of Germany invading Britain—a paranoia common in the early twentieth century—William Le Queux wrote dozens of thrillers and adventure novels for a dedicated public audience. Although critical acclaim eluded him, popular success made him one of England’s bestselling writers. In The White Lie, a retired naval officer named Dick Harbonne is stabbed to death on a rural road in the vicinity of Norwich. Discovered in a ditch that morning, Harbonne’s murder seems more than an attempted robbery gone awry. While inspecting an engineering project along the coast of Norfolk, Lieutenant Barclay—a former friend of Harbonne’s—and Francis Goring—a local politician—discuss the man’s tragic, shocking death. Recalling his recent run-ins with Harbonne, Barclay notes that since retiring from naval service, he had taken up a rather libertine lifestyle, traveling constantly from England to the continent while turning up at strange hours looking disheveled and acting like a complete stranger. While discussing the progress of the telegraph line being laid across the North Sea to Germany, Lieutenant Barclay has a strange premonition, a voice in his head imploring him to not only look into his friend’s mysterious death, but to be on the look out for spies of Kaiser Wilhelm. Fearful, cautious, yet famously calm, Barclay suspects that the question of invasion seems less of a matter of if now than when. This edition of William Le Queux’s The White Lie is a classic espionage thriller reimagined for modern readers.

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