The Riddle of the Sands: A Record of Secret Service

Well, people seem to love this book, acknowledged as an early book in the sky thriller genre that set the groundwork for the genre thereafter. But to be honest I found this really slow - labourious even - the first 50 pages had me checking again what the plot was. First published 1903, for me there was some hesitance in the writing, and it was very slow to get the story moving. The story is set along the German coastline around the Frisian Islands and the Baltic Sea - an area I hadn't even a vague notion of, so I was thankful of the maps and charts.

No doubt it is technically very accurate with its yachting terminology, tidal descriptions, geographical accuracy and descriptions of the waterways and landforms, complete with the maps and charts made it an accurate story, which I suppose it needed to be with the form of the story. The descriptions on land were not lacking either, the small German villages, the people in them all very neatly described.

There was some interesting interplay with the main characters Davies and Carruthers - very British of them, both trying to out-polite each other. The era of the story shows up the lack of technology, working with charts, potentially out of date, no gps, no cellphones of course, no email. Was it prescient, being published 11 or so years before WWI? Well Britain did strengthen her seaboard defenses after it was published.

Would I recommend this to others - certainly for sailing enthusiasts, who like accuracy. For others who want to read the spy thriller genre? I would refer them to other peoples reviews, as people seem genuinely taken by this book that missed the mark for me.

I was quite surprised however when I read the Introduction (after I had finished the novel - you won't catch me four times by spoiling the story in the introduction) to find that Childers played a part in the Irish rebellion mixing himself up in gunrunning, lobbying on behalf of Sinn Féin, even winning a seat in the revolutionary parliament before taking a strong view of the treaty (on the anti-treaty side), falling out of favour and being executed by firing squad.
What I was not surprised about however, were his multiple visits the Frisian Islands on his own yachts, as it was clear this was where his accurate descriptions came from.

3 stars.