The Traitor

September 28, 2015
First published in 1936, this entry in the British Library Classic Thrillers series, a spy novel from Horler (1888–1954), feels more dated than retro. In the final year of the Great War, Capt. Alan Clinton, a British army officer, loses vital military information due to an infatuation with a woman who’s a German agent. He conceals his misdeeds and devotes himself to the service of his kingdom in penance. War is threatening again 17 years later when Clinton’s adopted son, Robert Wingate, an officer in the Tank Corps, takes it upon himself to conduct some unauthorized espionage in the capital of a fictional central European country. The naive Wingate is soon bamboozled by the very same woman who tricked his father, and he faces a court-martial back in London for selling secrets to the enemy. Wingate’s lack of control over his own fate won’t endear him to fans of today’s spy fiction, nor will they be pleased by the book’s paucity of action.