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 Doomed Oasis

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.

Bruce's grandfather was convinced that oil could be found in the Rocky Mountains. So when Bruce becomes the beneficiary of his will, he decides to take up the challenge. But time is against him - time to live, time to vindicate his grandfather's obsession, and time to save the land itself.

Novel of an obsolete ocean freighter, a veteran of both World Wars, and of Gideon Patch, the ship's mate.

The Wreck of the Mary Deare

The Black Tide and the Big Footprints

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ANDY MCNAB He was a man without hope, until a lawyer and a crazy inheritance spurred him to one last desperate roll of the dice. The old man was convinced, against all evidence, that there was oil in the Rocky mountains. So his grandson sets off to a godforsaken town of shattered hopes and bitter old men, and plunges into a perilous battle against hostile country, powerful enemies and a ticking clock.

The Strange Land

During the war, Iain Ross had been disgraced, and then drowned at sea -- or so his family believed. But a curious mission takes his brother Donald to the Hebrides to meet a Major Braddock, and he finds the man who was once his brother living a new life in a dead man's name. Braddock is running the evacuation of the army base on the remote, gale-swept island of Laerg. Winter is closing in, and he has his own reasons for wanting the army -- and Donald Ross -- off Laerg as quickly as possible, even in the face of a furious storm building out in the Atlantic.

Atlantic Fury

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

The White South

The spectre of another world war haunts journalist Walter Craig and disturbs the peace of his seaside holiday. But below the Cornish cliffs, hidden by churning seas, the enemy is very real indeed, and much closer than anyone could suspect.

Wreckers Must Breathe

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

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.

The Conquistadors

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

Hammond Innes

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