The Riddle of the Sands: a Record of Secret Service is a classic early example of the espionage novel, with a strong underlying theme of militarism. It has been made into a Hollywood film and TV film.

As a novel it owes much to the adventure genre, and perhaps more significantly, 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. Ken Follett called it "the first modern thriller." The Observer, in a list published to coincide with the Big Read campaign in 2003, listed the book at number thirty-seven in "The 100 Greatest Novels" from the past 300 years.

"The first and best of spy stories"--The Times

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