The White Lie - Le Queux, William

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Résumé :
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. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of William Le Queux's The White Lie is a classic espionage thriller reimagined for modern readers.

Biographie:

William Le Queux (1864-1927) was an Anglo-French journalist, novelist, and radio broadcaster. Born in London to a French father and English mother, Le Queux studied art in Paris and embarked on a walking tour of Europe before finding work as a reporter for various French newspapers. Towards the end of the 1880s, he returned to London where he edited Gossip and Piccadilly before being hired as a reporter for The Globe in 1891. After several unhappy years, he left journalism to pursue his creative interests. Le Queux made a name for himself as a leading writer of popular fiction with such espionage thrillers as The Great War in England in 1897 (1894) and The Invasion of 1910 (1906). In addition to his writing, Le Queux was a notable pioneer of early aviation and radio communication, interests he maintained while publishing around 150 novels over his decades long career.