William Le Queux

seq/n	Title	Original Publisher	Year First Published
1	Guilty Bonds	Routledge	1891
2	The Temptress	Tower	1895
3	Zoraida: A Romance of the Harem	Tower	1895
4	Devil's Dice.	White	1896
5	Who so Findeth a Wife	Ditto	1897
6	A Madonna of the Music Halls	Ditto	1897
7	The Eye of Ishtar	Ditto	1897
8	If Sinners Entice Thee	Ditto	1898
9	The Great White Queen	White	1898
10	Scribes and Pharisees	Ditto	1898
11	The Veiled Man	Ditto	1899
12	The Bond of Black	Ditto	1899
13	Wiles of the Wicked	Bell	1899
14	The Day of Temptation	White	1899
15	England's Peril	Ditto	1899
16	An Eye for an Eye	Ditto	1900
17	In White Raiment	Ditto	1900
18	Of Royal Blood	Hutchinson	1900
19	The Gamblers	Ditto	1901
20	The Sign of the Seven Sins	Lippincott	1901
21	Her Majesty's Minister	Hodder	1901
22	The Court of Honour	White	1901
23	The Under-Secretary	Hutchinson	1902
24	The Unnamed	H&S	1902
25	The Tickencote Treasure	Newnes	1903
26	The Three Glass Eyes	Treherne	1903
27	The Seven Secrets	Hutchinson	1903
28	The Idol of the Town	White	1903
29	As We Forgave Them	Ditto	1904
30	The Closed Book	Methuen	1904
31	The Hunchback of Westminster	Ditto	1904
32	The Man from Downing Street	Hurst	1904
33	The Red Hat	Daily Mail	1904
34	The Sign of the Stranger	White	1904
35	The Valley of the Shadow	Methuen	1905
36	Who Giveth This Woman?	Stoughton	1905
37	The Spider's Eye	Cassell	1905
38	Sins of the City	White	1905
39	The Mask	Long	1905
40	Behind the Throne	Methuen	1905
41	The Czar's Spy	H&S	1905
42	The Great Court Scandal	White	1906
43	The House of the Wicked	Blackett	1906
44	The Mysterious Mr. Miller	H&S	1906
45	The Mystery of a Motor-Car.	Ditto	1906
46	Whatsoever a Man Soweth	White	1906
47	The Woman at Kensington	Cassell	1906
48	The Secret of the Square	White	1907
49	The Great Plot	Hodder	1907
50	Whosoever Loveth	Hutchinson	1907
51	The Crooked Way	Methuen	1908
52	The Looker On	White	1908
53	The Pauper of Park Lane	Cassell	1908
54	Stolen Sweets	Nash	1908
55	The Woman in the Way	Nash	1908
56	The Red Room	Cassell	1909
57	The House of Whispers	Nash	1909
58	Fatal Thirteen	Paul	1909
59	Treasure of Israel	Nash	1910
60	Lying Lips	Stanley	1910
61	The Unknown Tomorrow	White	1910
62	Hushed Up	Nash	1911
63	The Money-Spider	Cassell	1911
64	The Death Doctor	Blackett	1912
65	Fatal Fingers	Cassell	1912
66	The Mystery of Nine	Nash	1912
67	Without Trace	Ditto	1912
68	The Price of Power	Hurst	1913
69	The Room of Secrets	Ward	1913
70	The Lost Million	Nash	1913
71	The White Lie	Lock	1914
72	Sons of Satan	White	1914
73	The Hand of Allah	Cassell	1914
74	Her Royal Highness	H&S	1914
75	The Maker of Secrets	Ward	1914
76	The Four Faces	Paul	1914
77	The Double Shadow	H&S	1915
78	At the Sign of the Sword	Jack	1915
79	The Mysterious Three	Ward	1915
80	The Mystery of the Green Ray	Hodder	1915
81	The Sign of Silence	Ward	1915
82	The White Glove	Nash	1915
83	The Zeppelin Destroyer	Hodder	1916
84	Number 70, Berlin	Hodder	1916
85	The Place of Dragons	Ward	1916
86	The Spy Hunter	Pearson	1916
87	The Man about Town	Long	1916
88	Annette of the Argonne	Blackett	1916
89	The Broken Thread	Lock	1916
90	Behind the German Lines	Mail	1917
91	The Breath of Suspicion	Long	1917
92	The Devil's Carnival	Blackett	1917
93	No Greater Love	Lock	1917
94	Two in a Tangle	Hodder	1917
95	Rasputin, The Rascal Monk	Blackett	1917
96	The Yellow Ribbon	Hodder	1918
97	The Secret Life of the Ex-Tsaritza	Odhams	1918
98	The Sister Disciple	Blackett	1918
99	The Stolen Statesman	Skeffington	1918
100	The Little Blue Goddess	Ward	1918
101	The Minister of Evil	CFassell	1918
102	Bolo The Super-Spy	Odhams	1918
103	The Catspaw	Lloyds	1918
104	Cipher Six.	Hodder	1919
105	The Doctor of Pimlico	Cassell	1919
106	The Forbidden Word	Odhams	1919
107	The King's Incognito	Odhams	1919
108	The Lure of Love	Lock	1919
109	Rasputinism in London	Cassell	1919
110	The Secret Shame of the Kaiser	Blackett	1919
111	Secrets of the White Tsar	Odhams	1919
112	The Heart of a Princess	Ward	1920
113	The Intriguers	H&S	1920
114	No 7 Saville Square	Ward	1920
115	The Red Widow	Cassell	1920
116	The Terror of the Air	Lloyd's	1920
117	Whither Thou Goest	Lloyd's	1920
118	This House to Let	H&S	1921
119	The Lady-in-Waiting	Ward	1921
120	The Open Verdict	H&S	1921
121	The Power of the Borgias	Odhams	1921
122	Mademoiselle of Monte Carlo	Cassell	1921
123	The Fifth Finger	Paul	1921
124	The Golden Face	Cassell	1922
125	The Stretton Street Affair	Cassell	1922
126	Three Knots	Ward	1922
127	The Voice from the Void	Cassell	1922
128	The Young Archduchess	Ward	1922
129	Where the Desert Ends	Cassell	1923
130	The Bronze Face	Lock	1923
131	The Crystal Claw	H&S	1924
132	Fine Feathers	Stanley	1924
133	A Woman's Debt	Lock	1924
134	The Broadcast Mystery	Holden	1925
135	The Marked Man	Lock	1925
136	The Valrose Mystery	Lock	1925
137	The Blue Bungalow	Hurst	1925
138	The Fatal Face	Hurst	1926
139	Hidden Hands	H&S	1926
140	The Black Owl	Lock	1926
141	Hushed Up !	Nash	1927
142	The Letter E	Cassell	1926
143	The Mystery of Mademoiselle	H&S	1926
144	The Scarlet Sign	Lock	1926
145	Blackmailed	Grayson	1927
146	The Office Secret	Lock	1927
147	The House of Evil	Lock	1927
148	The Chameleon	H&S	1927
149	Double Nought	H&S	1927
150	The Lawless Hand	Hurst	1927
151	The Rat Trap	Ward	1928
152	Concerning This Woman	Newnes	1928
153	Twice Tried	Hurst	1928
154	The Secret Formula	Lock	1928
155	The Sting	H&S	1928
156	The Amazing Count	Lock	1929
157	The Golden Three	Lock	1930
158	The Crinkled Crown	Lock	1929
	Title: other works	publisher	year
159	Strange Tales of a Nihilist	Ward	1892
160	Stolen Souls	Ward	1895
161	Secrets of Monte Carlo	Tower	1899
162	Secrets of the Foreign Office	Hutchinson	1903
163	Confessions of a Ladies' Man	Hutchinson	1905
164	The Count's Chauffeur	Nash	1907
165	The Lady in the Car	Nash	1908
166	Spies of the Kaiser	Hurst	1909
167	Revelations of the Secret Service	White	1911
168	The Indiscretions of a Lady's Maid	Nash	1911
169	Mysteries	Ward	1913
170	The German Spy	Newnes	1914
171	Cinders of Harley Street	Ward	1916
172	The Bomb-Makers	Jarrolds	1917
173	Beryl of the Biplane	Pearson	1917
174	Hushed Up at German Headquarters	Mail	1917
175	The Rainbow Mystery	H&S	1917
176	The Scandal-Monger	Ward	1917
177	The Secrets of Potsdam	Daily Mail	1917
178	More Secrets of Potsdam	Daily Mail	1917
179	Further Secrets of Potsdam	Daily Mail	1917
180	Donovan of Whitehall	Pearson	1917
181	Sant of the Secret Service	Odhams	1918
182	The Hotel X	Ward	1919
183	Mysteries of the Great City	H&S	1919
184	In Secret	Odhams	1920
185	The Secret Telephone	Jarrolds	1921
186	Society Intrigues I Have Known	Odhams	1920
187	The Luck of the Secret Service	Pearson	1921
188	The Elusive Four	Cassell	1921
189	Tracked by Wireless	Paul	1922
190	The Gay Triangle	Jarrolds	1922
191	Bleke, The Butler	Jarrolds	1923
192	The Crimes Club	Grayson	1927
193	The Peril of Helen Marklove	Jarrolds	1928
194	The Factotum and Other Stories	Ward	1931

William Le Queux was a famous journalist, writer and celebrated novelist, a master of the spy genre, and a vociferous critic of Britain’s weak military defences before the First World War, known at the time and for the next twenty years as “The Great War”.

 

He is acknowledged as the principal precursor of that famous spy story author of the second half of the twentieth century, namely Ian Fleming.

 

His spy hero character Gerry Sant displays many of the personality traits of James Bond: ready for action, courage in adversity and ready to ‘mix it‘ with the villain of the piece. Sant’s behaviour towards women is more proper and genteel, as it would have been seen to be the respected ”proper” behaviour of the well bred English gentleman of the day.

 

William Le Queux had a major influence on contemporary British military policy in the first decade of the twentieth century and he raised its political importance in the domestic arena: he was one of the most explicit critics of British military, especially naval policy, which he regarded as dangerously weak in this part of the twentieth century. These criticisms run as a rich vein through his spy novels and reach a climax on the frightening reality of his classic military novels. Among his best-known works with a military theme are the anti-German invasion fantasies The Great War in England in 1897 (published in 1894) and The Invasion of 1910 (published in 1906). The latter was a stunning bestseller.

 

The political establishment tried to silence him …. in vain. His criticisms in the press and on radio anticipated the lone voice of Sir Winston Churchill who, just over twenty years later, was politically condemned for his damning exposure of Britain’s military weakness, then being known as the policy of “Appeasement” towards the growing forces of Fascism, especially Hitler and Nazi Germany.

 

William Le Queux was of Anglo-French parentage: he was born on 2nd July 1864 in London (United Kingdom) and he died on 13th October 1927 in Knokke (Belgium). His father was a French clothier and his mother was English.

 

William Le Queux is principally remembered as a journalist and writer. However he was also a diplomat and a traveller across Western and Eastern Europe and also across North Africa: his experiences and the knowledge gleaned from these adventures added a powerful sense of reality and considerable colour to the themes and narratives in his novels. His heroes were always on the move, visiting one exotic location or another. He was something of a flying enthusiast and a broadcasting innovator who transmitted music from his own little radio station at home long before radio became a popular medium.

 

William Le Queux was educated in Europe and studied in Paris. He undertook a wide ranging a tour of Europe as a young man before beginning his career by writing for French newspapers. In the late 1880’s, he returned to London to edit successively the magazines ‘Gossip’ and ‘Piccadilly’ before joining the staff of the newspaper ‘The Globe’ in the role of parliamentary reporter in 1891. In 1893, he gave up journalism to concentrate on writing novels, many of which reflect the racy urgency and speed of his journalistic style in his prose of his novels.

 

In the years leading up to World War I, his friendship with the powerful British publishing magnate Lord Northcliffe led to the serialised publication and intensive promotion of his “Invasion” writings such as ‘Invasion 1910’. This novel appeared initially in a serialised form in Northcliffe’s Daily Mail newspaper running from early March 1906. It was a huge success and the newspaper's circulation increased greatly. “Invasion 1910” has been translated since into over twenty languages and was one of the first novels to sell over one million copies. It made a small fortune for William Le Queux.

 

However, he was less than pleased about the German translated version which appeared in 1911: “Die Invasion von 1910”. This version had a different ending, concluding with a negotiated peace between the warring parties rather than the defeat portrayed in the original English edition, more acceptable to the sensibilities domestic of German readership at home.

 

Field Marshal Earl Roberts was an eminent and, by this time, retired soldier of the period and a forceful and trenchant critic of his successors’ military strategies. He makes an appearance in ‘Invasion 1910’ and is thought to have helped in the construction of the novel’s main themes and added a powerful sense of military reality to the events recorded in the English original book.

 

At the beginning of World War I Le Queux became convinced that Germans spies were out to assassinate him for exposing their nefarious plotting against Britain. He started to behave in a way which today we would almost describe as a ‘persecution complex’.

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