ou're in luck, Alfred," he declared. "That's the most interesting man in New York-one of the most interesting in the world. That's Sanford Quest." "Who's he?" "You haven't heard of Sanford Quest?" "Never in my life." The young man whose privilege it was to have been born and lived all his days in New York, drank half a glassful of wine and leaned back in his chair. Words, for a few moments, were an impossibility. "Sanford Quest," he pronounced at last, "is the greatest master in criminology the world has ever known. He is a magician, a scientist, the Pierpont Morgan of his profession." "Say, do you mean that he is a detective?" The New Yorker steadied himself with an effort. Such ignorance was hard to realise-harder still to deal with. "Yes," he said simply, "you could call him that-just in the same way you could call Napoleon a soldier or Lincoln a statesman...

Edward Phillips Oppenheim was an English novelist, primarily known for his suspense fiction. He was born on 22 October 1866 in Leicester, the son of a leather merchant, and after attending Wyggeston Grammar School he worked in his father's business for almost 20 years, beginning there at a young age. He continued working in the business, even though he was a successful novelist, until he was 40 at which point he sold the business. He wrote his first book 'Expiation' in 1887 and in 1898 he published 'The Mysterious Mr Sabin', which he described as "The first of my long series of stories dealing with that shadowy and mysterious world of diplomacy." Thereafter he became a prolific writer and by 1900 he had had 14 novels published. While on a business trip to the United States in 1890 he met and married Elise Clara Hopkins of Boston and, on return to England, they lived in Evington, Leicestershire until the First World War,and had one daughter. His wife remained faithful to him throughout his life despite his frequent and highly publicised affairs, which often took place abroad and aboard his luxury yacht.