Hammond Innes

Campbell's Kingdom

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY STELLA RIMINGTON It lies somewhere beneath the snow, high in the Dolomites: Nazi gold, tainted with the blood of murdered men. Only a few know its secrets, and one by one they come in search of it – a hot-tempered Italian Comtessa, a racketeering pimp, a Greek criminal, a film-maker and a hapless writer. A tense battle of wits leads to an explosive finale in Innes’ classic tale of revenge and deadly greed.

The Lonely Skier

The wreck of the 'Mary Deare'

The tale of an archaeological dig gone terribly wrong from “Great Britain’s leading adventure novelist” (Financial Times). When his parents died, Paul was sent to Amsterdam to live with his mother’s old lover, the eccentric archaeologist Pieter Van der Voort. Paul became a man in that cramped, strange house, cooped up with skeletons, fossils, and his increasingly mad guardian, who was obsessed with the search for the origins of man. Finally, Paul can take no more. He hops a freighter and spends eight years at sea before returning home to find Van der Voort gone—and a mystery waiting in his place. Van der Voort is in Greece on an archaeological expedition that’s spiraling out of control. The last place Paul wants to be is at the old man’s side, but he feels something drawing him toward the dig site. To reach Greece, he takes a job working for a smuggler, embarking on a journey that will carry him across the globe—and into the blackest depths of history. A rip-roaring archaeological adventure in the spirit of Indiana Jones, Levkas Man is a story about the fundamental desire that has defined all human history: the irresistible urge to kill.

Levkas Man

Air Bridge

A sweeping adventure set in the Arabian Desert, where the shadow of British colonialism threatens to destroy a father and son. Three years ago, nineteen-year-old David Thomas beat his father to death. Actually, David only punched the old man, but it was hard enough to cause him to have a fatal stroke. And the man wasn’t really David’s father at all: The fight started because David learned that his true father was Col. Charles Stanley Whitaker, a legendary figure who made his fortune in the oil fields of the Arabian Desert. With the help of George Grant, a lawyer he’d just met, David escaped the police and set out to find his real father. But like so many travelers before him, he was swallowed by the desert and never seen again . . . Now, Grant is working for Colonel Whitaker, helping him negotiate the tangled politics of the turbulent Middle East. When he begins asking questions about the circumstances of David’s disappearance, he will be forced to confront the nightmare at the heart of the British Empire. A globe-trotting adventure with the sweep of Lawrence of Arabia, The Doomed Oasis is a thrilling political novel, one of the finest ever written by the legendary Hammond Innes.

The Doomed Oasis

The Black Tide and the Big Footprints

A trio of compelling classics of adventure and suspense—featuring The Wreck of the Mary Deare—from “Great Britain’s leading adventure novelist” (Financial Times). British novelist Hammond Innes was perhaps best known for his nautical mystery, The Wreck of the Mary Deare, which was made into a film starring Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston. But the prolific writer, World War II veteran, and dedicated yachtsman wrote over thirty novels of adventure and suspense over his long career. The two additional novels collected here tell the tales of a World War II plot and a rescue on the frozen Labrador Peninsula. As always, “the art of writing thoroughly well-documented and ably-written thrillers is perfectly understood by Innes, whose work stands in a class by itself” (V. S. Pritchett). The Wreck of the Mary Deare: Capt. John Sands has only moments to steer his sailboat clear of a freighter coming out of nowhere on a foggy night. He catches a glimpse of the ship as it passes by: Her name is Mary Deare, and her crew is nowhere to be seen. A salvage expert, Sands boards the drifting hulk and finds only one man aboard: the first officer, Gideon Patch, half-mad from trying to sail the freighter on his own. Getting the ship safely to port and unraveling the mystery of why it was abandoned will reveal an incredible story of greed and betrayal on the high seas. “Original in its plot and extraordinarily clever in its constant succession of mysterious twists and surprising revelations, it is an utterly engrossing tale.” —The New York Times Wreckers Must Breathe: This prescient World War II adventure, written early on in the war in 1940, concerns a German U-boat hiding off the coast of Cornwall. Journalist Walter Craig is on a seaside vacation as reports come in of German mobilization, and England finds herself on the brink of war. Cruising in a small fishing vessel, Craig and charter boat captain Big Logan nearly collide with a shadowy black shape. Along this rocky stretch of the English Channel, these two men just found themselves on the front lines . . . “An uncommonly good story, capitally written.” —LondonEvening Standard The Land God Gave to Cain: In this “literate and exciting adventure story,” a young man risks his life to respond to a distress call on Canada’s Labrador Peninsula (Kirkus Reviews). After Ian Ferguson’s father was wounded in World War II, his ham radio was all he had left to communicate with. When Ian finds his father’s last transmission—a call for help from a survivor of a lost expedition—he journeys across a frozen landscape to save the man’s life . . . and honor his father. “Innes makes one shiver with cold. . . . Original plot, plenty of action, spectacular scenery.” —The New York Times

The Wreck of the Mary Deare, Wreckers Must Breathe, and The Land God Gave to Cain

The Hammond Innes Collection Volume One

In a bullet-scarred game lodge, Journalist Colin Tait waits to interview hunter turned conservationist, Cornelius van Delden. The occasion is the first wildlife conference after an African war. Van Delden's entrance triggers off a confrontation that takes Tait on a dramatic journey through Africa.

The Big Footprints

Four action-packed thrillers from the author of The Wreck of the Mary Deareand “Great Britain’s leading adventure novelist” (Financial Times). British novelist Hammond Innes was perhaps best known for his nautical mystery, The Wreck of the Mary Deare, which was made into a film starring Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston. But the prolific writer, World War II veteran, and dedicated yachtsman wrote over thirty novels of adventure and suspense during his long career. The collected fiction here spans the globe—from Antarctica to the Hebrides, Cold War Germany to sun-soaked Greece. As always, “for sheer excitement Hammond Innes will be hard to beat” (Daphne du Maurier). Isvik: Isvik is a legend—a ghost ship that sits on the lip of Antarctica, two hundred years old at least, swallowed by the ice with severed masts and helmsman frozen to the wheel. Or so a glaciologist reported before his plane crashed on the ice shelf. Now, wealthy Scotsman Iain Ward is determined to find the frozen frigate—and he’s bringing along Peter Kettil, a wood preservation specialist and seasoned sailor himself. But Ward and Kettil are not the only ones willing to go to any lengths to discover the ship’s secrets . . . “[A] dramatic adventure that will keep readers guessing until its startling climax.” —Publishers Weekly Air Bridge: After his heroic service in World War II, pilot and aircraft engineer Neil Fraser must steal planes in order to make a living, flying them from England to the land that will soon become Israel. But when he’s caught by a ruthless tycoon, he’s forced to build the wealthy man a new aircraft engine. With dreams of conquering the sky, Bill Saeton wants Fraser to fly the plane over a divided Germany as part of the Berlin Airlift. But as Saeton’s ambition becomes a dangerous obsession, Fraser begins to look for a way to bail out. “Authentic and excellent . . . His plot, characters and suspense live up to the setting.” —San Francisco Chronicle Atlantic Fury: When a British army unit is ordered to evacuate from the remote, rocky island of Laerg in the Hebrides during a violent storm, it’s up to a pair of reunited brothers to save the group of soldiers—and each other. “Nothing short of superb.” —The New York Times Levkas Man: When his parents died, Paul was sent to Amsterdam to live with his mother’s old lover, the eccentric archaeologist Pieter Van der Voort, who was obsessed with the origins of man. After eight years at sea, Paul discovers Van der Voort is in Greece on an archaeological expedition that’s spiraling out of control. To reach Greece, Paul takes a job working for a smuggler, embarking on a journey that will carry him across the globe—and into the blackest depths of man’s most primal instinct. “Quick-action adventure—a particularly interesting background.” —The Daily Telegraph

Isvik, Air Bridge, Atlantic Fury, and Levkas Man

The Hammond Innes Collection Volume Three

Three thrilling treasure hunts—from the author of The Wreck of the Mary Deare and “Great Britain’s leading adventure novelist” (Financial Times). British novelist Hammond Innes was perhaps best known for his nautical mystery, The Wreck of the Mary Deare, which was made into a film starring Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston. But the prolific writer, World War II veteran, and dedicated yachtsman wrote over thirty novels of adventure and suspense over his long career. The three novels collected here offer death-defying adventure set against harsh and exotic landscapes, from the Italian Alps to the Canadian Rockies and the Norwegian glaciers. As always, “the art of writing thoroughly well-documented and ably-written thrillers is perfectly understood by Innes, whose work stands in a class by itself” (V. S. Pritchett). The Lonely Skier: High among the Dolomite Mountains, a film crew led by half–con man half-genius director Derek Engles is ostensibly making a skiing picture. But beneath the mountain ice is a fortune in Nazi gold, which the filmmaker will find—or die trying. Only Neil Blair, an old army buddy hired on as a scriptwriter for the fake film, can stop things from going downhill fast, in Innes’s literal cliffhanger, made into the 1948 film Snowbound. “A superbly constructed and atmospheric thriller.” —The Independent Campbell’s Kingdom: A London insurance clerk who’s just received a devastating diagnosis, Bruce Wetheral learns he’s the sole heir to his grandfather’s land in the Canadian Rockies. Stuart Campbell froze to death in a shack on the edge of a mountain, where he lived his final years in a feverish hunt for oil. Everyone thought he was crazy, but his grandson believes he may have been on to something. The intrepid young man travels to the far reaches of Alberta to take the oil industry by the throat—and live or die in pursuit of his grandfather’s impossible dream. “Guaranteed entertainment.” —Kirkus Reviews The Blue Ice: It’s been ten years since metallurgist George Farnell disappeared after setting out to make his fortune in the frozen wilds of Norway. Two lines of poetry and a shard of mineral ore are all that remain of him, and only industrialist and adventurer Bill Gansert has the wit to understand Farnell’s final discovery—and the daring to seize it for his own. With a small crew, he sets out for the Arctic Circle to a whaling station in the shadows of the mountain known as Blue Ice, where he will make his fortune anew—or be destroyed by his own ambition. “Action adventure with [a] maximum of suspense and tension, aided by the background atmosphere of a Norwegian glacier . . . Assured and accomplished adventure.” — Kirkus Reviews

The Lonely Skier, Campbell’s Kingdom, and The Blue Ice

The Hammond Innes Collection Volume Two

Three hard-hitting thrillers from the author of The Wreck of the Mary Deare and “Great Britain’s leading adventure novelist” (Financial Times). British novelist Hammond Innes was perhaps best known for his nautical mystery, The Wreck of the Mary Deare, which was made into a film starring Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston. But the prolific writer, World War II veteran, and dedicated yachtsman wrote over thirty novels of adventure and suspense during his long career. The collected fiction gathered here follows three very different quests and spans the locales of Western Australia, the North Sea, and the Arabian Desert. As always, “for sheer excitement Hammond Innes will be hard to beat” (Daphne du Maurier). Golden Soak: In this “tenacious adventure,” Alec Falls, a ruined and unscrupulous tin miner, travels to the forbidding desert of Western Australia in search of the legendary abandoned gold mine known as Golden Soak (Kirkus Reviews). But the mine is empty, the land is dry, and the people of the desert feed on men like Falls. To make the fortune he craves, he must pull water from the sand—and gold from thin air. “As good as any story can be.” —The Times (London) Maddon’s Rock: Stranded in a Russian port for weeks during World War II, Corporal James Vardy finally boards the Trikkala, hoping to return to England. But quickly he senses the vessel is doomed. Her officers are drunk, her lifeboats are leaky, and the mysterious crates supposedly carrying machine parts actually contain a fortune in silver bullion. On the North Sea, he realizes the ship is peeling away from its convoy, a suicidal decision that takes the Trikkala—and Vardy—directly into troubled waters. Also published in the United States as Gale Warnings. “Exciting . . . [a] new high in action adventure—in a story of modern piracy, treasure raising, of false charges of mutiny, and a fighting finish.” —Kirkus Reviews The Doomed Oasis: Col. Charles Stanley Whitaker is a legendary figure who made his fortune in the oil fields of the Arabian Desert, becoming more Bedouin than British. Three years ago, his illegitimate nineteen-year-old son, David Thomas, embarked on a quest to find him. Now, David has seemingly vanished into the desert. Unraveling the mystery of his disappearance will culminate in the oasis town of Saraifa, where water is as valuable as oil, and life can be cheap. “The writing shines as vivid and sharp as the desert sun.” —Gavin Lyall

The Golden Soak, Maddon's Rock, and The Doomed Oasis

The Hammond Innes Collection Volume Four

Solomon's Seal

The Killer Mine

Dick Farrell is a man haunted by his wartime memories of torture and fear - a time better forgotten. But past and present merge when a trip to Eastern Europe embroils him in the twilight world of the industrial spy. Farrell becomes a reluctant player in a lethal game as the hunt shifts from Czechoslovakia to southern Italy. And there, beneath the blazing summit of Vesuvius in full eruption, he comes face to face with the living ghosts of his past.

The Angry Mountain

On 12th July 1776, Captain James Cook sailed from Plymouth in the three-masted collier, Resolution, in search of the fabled North-West Passage. This was his third amazing voyage of discovery and this is the story he might have told. The voyage swept him and his crew from the icy wasteland of the Arctic to the tropical waters of Hawaii . a voyage in pursuit of one man.s dream against the fury of the elements, in the face of unknown terrors. It was also a journey change life on His Majesty.s ships forever.Hammond Innes has created a brilliantly imagined diary by the Captain himself, full of fascinating detail and showing a great seaman stretched to his limits.

Captain Cook's Lost Diary

The Last Voyage

Andrew Kilmartin was a quietly respectable lawyer working in the City of London. Until the day a wanted killer forced a way into his office. Against all the odds, Kilmartin believed that Franz Schmidt was innocent. But it was a belief that would endanger not only his own life, but also that of Schmidt's beautiful daughter, Freya – now guardian of her father's latest, and most revolutionary invention. Because there were some who would commit any crime to ensure that they alone held the key to all of Schmidt's secrets...

The Trojan Horse

Michael Randall flees to the wild seas around the Shetlands to escape an impossible dilemma. There he finds a North Sea oil rig and the unlikely possibility of a new life. But one stormy night this glimmer of hope for the future, and Randall's life itself, is thrown into jeopardy.

North Star

When Jim Pryce, a deserter from the army, returns secretly to his native Cornwall, he finds the coast cold and unfriendly. He is soon plunged into a hazardous world of crooks,contraband, madness and mysteries underneath the rocky cliffs.

Killer Mine

This enthralling study which examines the impact of the Spaniards upon the Aztec and Inca worlds is dominated by the personalities involved, in particular Cortes and Montezuma. Their confrontation in the Aztec lake-city of Tenochtitlan is a moving drama of human conflict revealing the dilemma and the enigma of the Indians. It is a story of battles and voyages, full of strange episodes – Cortes burning his ships, Pizarro drawing a line with his sword, saying "Gentlemen, this line represents toil, hunger, thirst, weariness, sickness" and daring them to cross it, and Atahualpa nursing his wound in the hot springs of Cajamarca and watching, with his army, the tiny band of Spanish adventurers descending the green slopes of the Andes.

Hammond Innes

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