The Pawns Count

Written by E. Phillips Oppenheim

Narrated by LibriVox Community

"I am for England and England only," John Lutchester, the Englishman, asserted.
"I am for Japan and Japan only," Nikasti, the Jap, insisted.
"I am for Germany first and America afterwards," Oscar Fischer, the German-American pronounced.
"I am for America first, America only, America always," Pamela Van Tale, the American girl, declared.

They were all right except the German-American.

It is during World War I. A chemist, Sandy Graham, has discovered a new powerful explosive, but he let's it slip in a London restaurant that he has made the discovery. Graham is ready to join some friends for luncheon at the restaurant but chooses to clean up before joining them. He never comes out of the restroom. Several spies from different governments set out to find him and the formula. What was particularly interesting to me about this espionage novel is that it was written in 1918, but it could just as easily have been from today. (Summary by Tom Weiss)

• Language: English
• Publisher: LibriVox
• Release date: Aug 25, 2014

E. Phillips Oppenheim

E. Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) was a bestselling English novelist. Born in London, he attended London Grammar School until financial hardship forced his family to withdraw him in 1883. For the next two decades, he worked for his father’s business as a leather merchant, but pursued a career as a writer on the side. With help from his father, he published his first novel, Expiation, in 1887, launching a career that would see him write well over one hundred works of fiction. In 1892, Oppenheim married Elise Clara Hopkins, with whom he raised a daughter. During the Great War, Oppenheim wrote propagandist fiction while working for the Ministry of Information. As he grew older, he began dictating his novels to a secretary, at one point managing to compose seven books in a single year. With the success of such novels as The Great Impersonation (1920), Oppenheim was able to purchase a villa in France, a house on the island of Guernsey, and a yacht. Unable to stay in Guernsey during the Second World War, he managed to return before his death in 1946 at the age of 79.