Edward Phillips Oppenheim (1866-1946) was the earliest writer of spy fiction as understood today, inventing the "rogue male" school of adventure thrillers and writing over 150 novels of all sorts. In The Golden Beast, a woman curses her lover"s father, a baron, who had her gamekeeper father hanged. Years afterward, three of the baron"s descendants disappear in a manner that baffles Scotland Yard, appearing they were the victims of that ancient curse.