In The Man-Stealers we have the French plot to kidnap the Duke of Wellington to avenge Napoleons imprisonment. Matthew Phipps Shiel (18651947) was a prolific British writer of West Indian descent. His legal surname remained Shiell though he adopted the shorter version as a de facto pen name. He is remembered mostly for supernatural and scientific romances. His work was published as serials, novels, and as short stories. The Purple Cloud (1901; 1929) remains his most famous and often reprinted novel. If you havent discovered the joys of Shiel s mysteries there is a good place to start.