E. Phillips Oppenheim 
The Great Impersonation (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) 

This 1920 novel, a marvel of taut plotting, is regarded as among the finest spy stories of all time.  Just before World War I, a dissolute English nobleman and a German secret agent, who happen to resemble each other exactly, meet by chance in South Africa.  The German decides to take the Englishman’s place and return to England in order to gain political power in conflict-filled Europe.

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Edward Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) was an English writer whose thrilling novels were perennial bestsellers.  His output—about 150 novels—was prodigious by any standard. The earliest known writer of spy fiction, he is best-known for the novel The Great Impersonation (1920) and the short-story collection General Besserley’s Puzzle Box (1935).