The Spy Paramount

By E. Phillips Oppenheim

Rome, 1934. Martin Fawley leaves the American secret service and is recruited by General Berati, the most feared man in fascist Italy, as a spy. After a brief encounter with a glamorous yet murderous Italian princess, Fawley’s mission takes him undercover to Monaco. Suave and worldly, Fawley is quite at home in the casinos and golf courses of Monte Carlo – but he is soon entangled in a game with higher stakes. As the nations of Europe vie for power, Fawley discovers the secret weapon that will determine the outcome of the looming war.

This classic thriller – undoubtedly an influence on Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels – is now republished for the first time since the 1930s. With its yachts and cocktail parties, its steely hero and brutal assassins, and its cinematic range across the cities of Europe, this is a gripping and sophisticated tale of a spy who saves the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
• Release date: Nov 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781464206580

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.

Reviews for The Spy Paramount

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Considered as a romantic adventure, very enjoyable, with plenty of fast action. An (allegedly) unemployed American spy is hired by an Itarian spymaster -- just as the matter is agreed, a woman tries to shoot the iTaian and fails. The American tracks her and finds she is a beautiful Italian noblewoman. and they fall in love. However, he goes to southern France to discover a secret French super anti-aircraft defense, and also meets a powerful German industrialist, Krust (Krupp?) . He goes on to Germany to determine whether the monarchists, whom Krust backs, or the Fascists, led by Behrling (a rather favorable version of Hitler --a strong nationalist but not anti-Semitic) deserve Italy's support. His beautiful Italian countess switches from the monarchists to the Fascists and tries to persuade him to do the same. Ultimately (spoiler warning) he manages to arrange a pact between Britain, the U.S., France, Germany and Italy by which all parties renounce war and Germany regains her colonies, which supposedly satisfy Behrling more than the Danzig Corridor. This was written in 1935 ad amounts to a preview of Munich with a more sincere Hitler. Oppenheim at that point seemingly had nothing against the Nazis. HIs predictions for the immediate future clearly had some basis in reality but not enough to foresee the final results of appeasement.

[pattylee-621744 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Started out well. Thought it was in the style and time period of Her Royal Spyness but veered into the realm of scifi by the time I finished.

[gothamajp · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

. In the years between the World Wars Oppenheim was considered the Prince of Storytellers, yet quickly fell out of favor after 1945. This particular story was out of print from 1941 till this 2014 edition. The story revolves around American secret agent Martin Fawley who emerged from WW1 a broken man and decided to use his fortune to fund himself as an agent without a country who would fight for peace. Like Bond (who he clearly influenced as Fleming name checks Oppenheim in Moonraker) it’s a story of beautiful women, fast cars, daring exploits, high living and high society as Fawley navigates his way through Italian, French, German, and British government intrigues in an effort to prevent another war. Published in 1935 it is both naive and innocent in its depiction of European politics of the time, yet at the same time scarily prescient in some of its observations.