Talbot Mundy

For one thing, they'd credit you with sense enough to bring her in without being told. For another, the messenger who took the note might have got captured on the way—they wouldn't want to tell the sepoys more than they could help.

Despite the fact that Talbot Mandy is more famous for having written the more popular King of Hebrew screws, this story of adventure in the desert will surely please the reader. An Englishman who accompanies the famous American James Graham in a dangerous journey through the Petri desert tells of this in order to resist Ali Higg's cruel and deadly robber in his own fortress. Powerful desert chifthan, Ali Higg terrorizes the Arabs, and does not unite them. Along with James Grim is his wife and companion, as well as a senior thief and his many sons and grandchildren. Will they succeed?

Putting Crime Over by Hulbert Footner. When Madame Roska Storey and her secretary are robbed, a plan is put in place to catch the robbers as well as their leader. She is the best private detective of England, but her stories are international. Her way to resolve the mystery is original and bring you in a new world. So we are introduced to the fascinating Madame Rosika Storey, fearless and intelligent, who plays cat-and-mouse with killers, goes undercover to break up criminal gangs, and unravels deadly mysteries. A strange, yet interesting tale that was actually written in the 1920s.

Also published under the title The King in Check, Affair in Araby is part of action-adventure writer Talbot Mundy's popular Jimgrim series, which chronicles the globetrotting exploits of British secret service agent James Schuyler Grim. In this thrilling installment, Jimgrim finds himself in the middle of a maelstrom of political one-upmanship between various factions from France, Syria, and Jerusalem.

Talbot Mundy was born William Lancaster Gribbon on April 23rd 1879 in London. After a particularly undistinguished record at Rugby School, he ran off to Germany and joined a circus. After his return, from Germany, he left Britain to work as a relief worker in Baroda in India, followed by further adventures in Africa, the Near East and the Far East. His initial inclination was to be a con artist, a confidence trickster and exploit other areas of petty criminality. However with a change of location to the United States and a near fatal mugging he decided that life as an upright citizen was now more to his liking. At age 29 he had decided on Talbot Mundy as a name and three years later in 1911 he began his writing career. Obviously late but it was still to be prodigious none the less. Many of his novels including his first 'Rung Ho!' and his most famous 'King - Of the Khyber Rifles are set during the British Raj in India. In early 1922, Mundy moved to San Diego, California and in late 1923 began writing perhaps his finest novel, Om, the Secret of Ahbor Valley. Whilst much of Talbot's early life was used in his work it seems he was not particularly proud to return to these places or indeed say to much more about his earlier escapades. Although his writing was to prove very popular over the years and has been revived on many occasions since his death it is fair to say that both his writing and his life were colourful. He married a number of times and still believed that his business dealings would make him very rich. However much of his life would not go as planned and it took several marriages in the hope of finding true happiness. His sixth wife, Dawn, gave birth to a girl on 26 February 1933 shortly after their return to England. Unfortunately the child died shortly after birth. Thereafter he wrote little but much of his work was republished and his name kept in print. On 5 August 1940 Talbot Mundy died from complications associated with diabetes.

Sometimes a big and dangerous adventure is fabulous wealth. There were hundred million pounds of ivory in those places that just waited for them! But, of course, the ivory was hidden in the darkest heart of Africa, and if they came out of the continent, they would certainly have to deal with the colonial government. But what a wonderful adventure without danger and call?

The gut of the pass rose toward Zeitoon at a sharp incline—a ramp of slippery wet clay, half a mile long, reaching across from buttress to buttress of the impregnable hills. It was more than a ridden mule could do to keep its feet on the slope, and we had to dismount. It was almost as much as we ourselves could do to make progress with the aid of sticks, and we knew at last what Kagig had meant by his boast that nothing on wheels could approach his mountain home. The poor wretches who had struggled so far with us simply gave up hope and sat down, proposing to die there.

The Paladins of Edwin the Great by Clements R. Markham

Excerpt: ...when to be silent,

The Essays of Montaigne, Volume 14 by Michel de Montaigne

Coniston -- Complete by Winston Churchill

Wakulla: a story of adventure in Florida by Kirk Munroe

A Manual of Elementary Geology by Charles Lyell

Mrs. Falchion, Volume 1. by Gilbert Parker

The Smuggler Chief by Gustave Aimard

Green Eyes by Roy J. Snell

Diary of a U-Boat Commander by Anonymous