The Damascened Blade

Zusatztext “This marvelous historical delivers.” — Publishers Weekly Informationen zum Autor Barbara Cleverly is the author of five novels of historical suspense, including The Damascened Blade , winner of the CWA Historical Dagger Award, The Last Kashmiri Rose, Ragtime in Simla, The Palace Tiger, and The Bee’s Kiss . She lives in Cambridge, England where she is now at work on the second Laetitia Talbot mystery, which Delta will publish in 2008. Klappentext In her acclaimed mysteries set in the age of the British Raj, Barbara Cleverly brilliantly captures a fascinating collision of cultures against a backdrop of jasmine-scented nights and neatly trimmed English gardens. In her gripping new novel, the author of The Last Kashmiri Rose and Ragtime in Simla transports us to the remote and exotic setting of India's North-West Frontier, where a group of travelers is swept into a spellbinding drama of kidnapping, vengeance, and murder. Scotland Yard Detective Joe Sandilands has been given the unenviable mission of guarding a spirited young American woman with far more wealth than sense. Lily Coblenz, accompanied by a cunning businessman, a woman doctor, and two quarreling military strategists, expects the adventure of a lifetime when she arrives at a remote British outpost. But when the son of a Pathan tribal leader is discovered dead, Sandilands, a decorated war veteran, knows that his mission to protect Lily has suddenly taken a startling new turn that may bring them all to the brink of war. Now, from the far reaches of an empire, Joe Sandilands must separate lies from truths, innocents from killers—and find the one person with a desperate motive for murder and the key to India's destiny. Chapter One India, 1910 "This isn't human country! It was never meant that anyone should be here, stand, sit or walk here. This isn't country worth fighting for. Leave it to bake in the summer, freeze in the winter; leave it to bury its dead or not even to bury its dead--leave them to bleach away to nothing in the sun. What did Bismarck say? 'Not worth the good bones of one Pomeranian grenadier.' He was thinking of the Balkans or some other God-forsaken part of Europe but it's even more true of this part of India. The North-West bloody Frontier! Not worth the bones of a single gallant native Scout. Not worth the bones of a Sandhurst-trained British officer. My bones! A subaltern, who has--dammit--only been in this foul oven for two weeks." The serrated and crumbling mountains, grey with hideous old age, black with seams of basalt, were empty, sterile and useless. Empty? Not quite. In the middle distance a lonely signal flag was frantically wagging. All the watching officers turned their binoculars on this. Someone read it off. Under attack. Carrying wounded. Three dead. Can you help? The Colonel turned to his second-in-command. "Send this, Neil," he said. " Stand by to retreat on the Tit. Await my signal. Will cover you ." He paused for a moment. With urgent speed the signal flag swished beside him in the hands of his second-in-command. "Have they got that?" he asked anxiously. "Yes, sir, they acknowledge." "Now send, Abandon the dead. " The signal flag swished again at his side. "And add, Don't abandon wounded ." Paddy Brownlow out there commanding the beleaguered patrol would know how to translate that--"Bring them in if you can--shoot them if you can't." Any British officer falling into the hands of the Afridi would, without question, be tortured to death. A process which would generally be extended to cover two full days especially if the women came down to join in the fun, and the same fate awaited any Hindu soldiery who might have the bad luck to fall into enemy hands. "They acknowledge, sir." "In that case, Neil, send Retreat and op...

Product details

• Authors: Barbara Cleverly
• Publisher: Random House USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.08.2005
• EAN: 9780385339506
• ISBN: 978-0-385-33950-6
• No. of pages: 336
• Dimensions: 133 mm x 209 mm x 18 mm
• Series: Joel Gustafsson Series; Joel Gustafsson Series; Joel Gustafsson
• Subject: Fiction > Narrative literature