Shy and reserved Ethel May Dell was a British author who appears to have been a born writer. Writing stories from an early age, Ethel eventually published more than thirty novels, and hundreds of short stories. Although always popular with readers, Ethel's writing was critically slammed -- for she wrote stories of romantic suspense, usually featuring a young woman in terrible peril, and often set in exotic locales, particularly India. The Swindler and Other Stories is a collection of stories that originally appeared in The Red Magazine. The title story was also made into a film in 1919. "The Swindler" is the tale of romance and gambling intrigue on a transatlantic voyage.