<DIV><p><b> An excellent addition to Penguin's crime classics: the tantalizing tale of Colonel Clay, literature's first gentleman rogue. </b></p><p>Wealthy, confident and handsome, Sir Charles Van Drift spends his time jetting to exotic locales with his wife and in-laws. But on one fateful trip to the Riviera, Van Drift meets his match in Colonel Clay. Posing alternately as a seer, a curate, and a German professor, the master of disguise swindles Van Drift through three continents and poses a serious risk to his South African diamond fortune. Colonel Clay, the notorious con artist and thief, has triumphed. But who is this master of disguise, really?</p><p>First serialized in <i>The Strand</i> in 1896, the adventures that comprise <i>An African Millionaire</i> are widely regarded as the first to feature a criminal protagonist and will be greeted enthusiastically by fans and scholars of classic crime fiction.</p></div>