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Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A false name may keep an agent alive. One wrong word may give him away.
In Okewood of the Secret Service, Valentine Williams follows an agent through the hidden struggle of the First World War. This is a world of borrowed clothes, hurried trains and rooms where speech carries danger. Okewood must rely on disguise and quick thinking, with the threat of discovery close at hand.
The adventure turns on pursuit and deception rather than deep psychology. False identities demand more than a change of clothes: an agent must look, speak and behave like someone else. Williams brings a journalist’s and soldier’s background to a brisk wartime story, where movement matters and a moment’s hesitation can carry a deadly cost.
What you’ll discover
- A war behind the front Enter the secret struggle where an agent’s words can be as dangerous as weapons.
- Disguise as a weapon Follow a hero whose borrowed identity depends on how he looks, speaks and behaves.
- The pull of pursuit Feel the pressure of a plot that keeps danger and quick thinking close together.
- Danger in ordinary places Hurried trains and quiet rooms become places where one mistake can prove fatal.
- Early spy adventure Discover the brisk pleasures of wartime intrigue, false names and a resourceful agent.
Who will love it
You will love this book if you enjoy wartime spy stories, clever disguises, secret passages and foggy marshland, and a hero who acts first and thinks later.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A soldier must become a stranger
- A stage triumph brings hidden danger
- The murder points beyond a burglary
- Desmond agrees to disappear
- A new identity takes physical shape
- The house conceals a courier station
- Secrecy leaves Barbara exposed
- Desmond faces danger without help
- Courage cannot replace careful judgment
Who’s who
- Desmond OkewoodA brigade major on leave from France who accepts a secret mission to impersonate a captured spy and break a ring of German agents.
- Barbara MackwayteA War Office secretary and the Chief's confidential clerk, who keeps a dancer's secret box and is drawn into the hunt for her father's killer.
- Nur-el-DinA glamorous Oriental dancer, once a child acrobat, who is hunted by the British and by the spy ring and wants to guard a precious jewel.
- Maurice StrangwiseA charming officer, newly escaped from a German camp, who is Desmond's friend and always smiling, and who keeps showing up near the dancer.
- The ChiefThe calm head of the British Secret Service, who tells each agent only a part of the plan and shares secrets reluctantly.
- Mr. MarigoldA careful Scotland Yard detective who initially treats the Seven Kings murder as a burglary and quietly watches the Chief's reactions.
- MortimerA smooth, bespectacled organiser of the spy ring who keeps his own past hidden and wants the dancer's jewel.
- Francis OkewoodDesmond's brother and a fellow agent, practical and sharp, who arrives disguised as an odd-job man to help.
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Okewood of the Secret Service
by Valentine Williams · 1918
A soldier on leave must become a stranger, with another man's beard and walk, to find a murderer and a missing jewel.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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“Nothing is absurd in our line of work, Okewood.”
In short
What if the only person who could save a murdered man's daughter had to become a stranger, with another man's beard, voice and walk? That is the problem facing Major Desmond Okewood, a soldier home on leave from the Western Front, in Okewood of the Secret Service.
Okewood of the Secret Service at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 45 min4 h 35 min fast, 6 h 50 min slow
- Length
- 82,500 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1918by Valentine Williams
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A last-minute act changes one family's fate
The story opens in a cheap house in Seven Kings. Arthur Mackwayte, a gentle old music-hall comedian, drinks tea with his daughter Barbara. Work has dried up, because audiences now want revues instead of his sketches of London street characters. Barbara works at the War Office and keeps the household going. She will not let him say he is finished.
Then the telephone rings. The Palaceum, the biggest hall in London, needs a replacement act within the hour. Barbara packs his props, and a car takes them to the theatre. Mackwayte goes on and delights the crowd as an old London bus driver. The star of the bill, an Oriental dancer named Nur-el-Din, keeps the stage waiting every night and fights with everyone.
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Details
- First published
- 1918
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 35 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Williams, Valentine. Okewood of the Secret Service. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/okewood-of-the-secret-service.
Williams, V. (2026). Okewood of the Secret Service. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/okewood-of-the-secret-service (Original work published 1918)
Williams, Valentine. Okewood of the Secret Service. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/okewood-of-the-secret-service.
@book{williams2026okewood,
author = {Williams, Valentine},
title = {Okewood of the Secret Service},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/okewood-of-the-secret-service},
note = {First published 1918}
}
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What is Okewood of the Secret Service about?
It follows Major Desmond Okewood, who is asked by the head of British intelligence to impersonate an arrested German spy and break up a ring that reports on troop ships, while a murder leads him to a dancer and a jewel.
Who is Nur-el-Din in the story?
She is a famous Oriental dancer at the Palaceum theatre. She was once a child acrobat, she is Polish, and she is suspected by the British of working for German agents, though her own story is different.
What is the Star of Poland?
It is a large diamond ringed with smaller ones, said to come from the coronation sword of Polish kings. Several characters want it, and it drives much of the plot.
The author
Valentine Williams
1883–1946 · British journalist and novelist
Valentine Williams (1883–1946) was a British journalist and fiction writer. He was born in London and died in New York. He worked as a newspaper correspondent and wrote novels about spies and secret agents. His books include Okewood of the Secret Service, published in 1918.
“Nothing is absurd in our line of work, Okewood.”
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