E. Phillips Oppenheim is the author of the mystery book The Great Impersonation, which was published before 1920. German Leopold von Ragastein, who meets his English doppelganger Everard Dominey in Africa, is the main character of the story. Just before World War I, he plots to kill Dominey and steal his identity in order to spy on English high society. However, in this story of romance, political intrigue, and a (literally) haunted history, questions about the returned Dominey's true identity start to surface. The Great Impersonation begins with an unexpected encounter between two men who had previously gone to school and university together in East Africa in 1913, just before the First World War breaks out.