One of my favorite podcasts of recent years was something called “The Riddle of the Sands Adventure Club.” Hosted by Lloyd Shepherd and Tim Wright, the podcast and accompanying website did a deep dive into The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers, a book that is arguably the first modern spy novel and what I think is certainly the first techno-thriller. The book follows the adventures of two men who are sailing around the Frisian Islands and discover a plot to invade England.

The hosts unpack some of the historical references and discuss various topics and locations mentioned in the book. They really seem to be having fun and their banter is quite engaging. The goal was to crowdfund a trip to follow in the footsteps of the book’s protagonists and write an annotated version of Riddle. Unfortunately they didn’t hit their goal (I donated!) but the podcasts looked at each chapter of the book for a total of 27 podcasts and they are still available. If you’re a fan of history and/or spies it’s a fun listen and I highly recommend checking it out.

You can start here with the first episode.

Here’s a trailer for the project –