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Cover blurb for The Riddle of the Sands
Note that there are lots of different editions with slightly different variations of blurb 
This is the one from the Seawolf Press Illustrated Classics series
A nice edition with all the original charts and illustrations, and a cover based on the first edition cover.
The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service is a 1903 novel by Erskine Childers. The book, extremely popular before World War I, is an early example of the espionage novel and was extremely influential in the genre of spy fiction. It was a spy novel that "established a formula that included a mass of verifiable detail, which gave authenticity to the story – the same ploy that would be used so well by John Buchan, Ian Fleming, John le Carré and many others."
The physical background is completely authentic - the various Frisian islands and towns named in the book actually exist and the descriptions of them accurate. The same is true for the various "sands" of the title - vast areas which are flooded at high tide but become mudflats at ebb. Navigating a small boat under these conditions requires a specialized kind of skilled seamanship. The plot slowly reveals a suspicion that the Germans are undertaking something sinister in the German Frisian islands. The book has been made into feature-length films for both cinema and television.
Comments
As am I! This looks fascinating!