8First published in England in 1940 and in the U.S. in 1941, this novel introduced series character Tommy Hambledon but the center stage is occupied by a young British spy whose adventrues were based on the life of one of the two collaborators, Cyril Coles, who was the youngest intelligence officer in the history of the British Secret Service. It's a grim, realistic spy story set during World War I framed within an inverted detective story. Coles, along with Eric Ambler, is credited with creating the modern espionage novel.