A classic of British adventure writing which has its fans and was reportedly very influential, not only in the area of spy fiction but in increasing England's preparations for home defence, but I've always struggled to get through it. Some classic tales I can see easily why they were classic - Hound of the Baskervilles, The 39 Steps, King Solomon's Mines. But I was bored with this as a teenager and remain bored revisiting it as a middle age person.
It has a great idea - a yachtsman invites an old school chum on board his little boat and reveals he thinks he'd discovered a German plot to invade England. But its bogged down with incessant description of sailing around the Frisian islands - tacking, and crashing into sand banks and being cold and lots and lots of not particularly interesting maps. We don't find out its a plot to invade England until late in the day so up until then it's just not particularly interesting clues and a surprising absence of action and suspense.
Carruthers and Davies are far too similar as characters - Davies is more active and Carruthers pukka but it's not long before they blend into the one person. There are some promising villains - the English traitor Dollman, the captain Von Bruning - but we don't see enough of them, and they aren't scary enough. We don't see enough either of Dollman's daughter, Clara. A less faithful film adaptation would have fixed these problems - like Hitchcock's version of The 39 Steps.
It does pick up towards the end with some decent scenes of Carruthers poking around trying to eavesrop on isolated windswept isles - and it is very convincing.
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