General Besserley's Puzzle Box

260 pp. General Samuel Besserly was a confirmed meddler--loveable enough and extremely, but still a meddler. Late of the United States Intelligence Department, now living on the Riviera, it was said that he spent his leisure in unmasking hypocrites, bringing criminals to justice, or rescuing the young and innocent from the perils of Monte Carlo. Some thought it wonderful to know him, others avoided him with great care. At any rate, his days as we follow them were a succession of thrills. Sometimes it was a small country that he saved from revolution; sometimes that it was a man who had lost everything at the gaming tables who found himself in the General's debt; at other times the old man's curiosity led to someone's death. In and out of these fascinating pages wanders a typical Oppenheim cast--down-at-the-heels royalties, gangsters, beautiful adventuresses, unlucky gamblers, international bankers and spies. Although each story is complete in itself, they are more closely linked than the chapters in many novels.