Dennis Yates Wheatley (1897-1977) was an English author whose prolific output of stylish thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling writers from the 1930s through the 1960s. His Gregory Sallust series was one of the main inspirations for Ian Fleming's James Bond stories.
Born in South London, he was the eldest of three children of an upper-middle-class family, the owners of Wheatley & Son of Mayfair, a wine business. He admitted to little aptitude for schooling, and was expelled from Dulwich College. Soon after his expulsion Wheatley became a British Merchant Navy officer cadet on the training ship HMS Worcester. During the Second World War, Wheatley was a member of the London Controlling Section, which secretly coordinated strategic military deception and cover plans. His literary talents gained him employment with planning staffs for the War Office. He wrote numerous papers for the War Office, including suggestions for dealing with a German invasion of Britain. During his life, he wrote more than 70 books which sold over 50 million copies.

'Before there was James Bond, there was Gregory Sallust.' Tina Rosenberg, Salon.com
The Scarlet Imposter is the second in Dennis Wheatley's bestselling Gregory Sallust series featuring the debonair spy Gregory Sallust, a forerunner to Ian Fleming's James Bond.
It is 1940, and Gregory Sallust is tasked with contacting an anti-Nazi organisation in Germany who are preparing to overthrow Hitler and sue for peace.
In a series of clever disguises, Sallust masquerades his way through challenge after challenge, surrounded by some of the most vicious and determined Nazis of the Third Reich.
A page-turning thriller packed with action, menace and a dangerous romance, The Scarlet Impostor is classic Wheatley - politically charged and heroically rendered from the first page.
"Adventures with the Gestapo, assorted plotters and a beautiful woman of mystery will keep your eyes glued to it for 450 pages!" - New York Herald Tribune