The Devil S Wind

"The Devil's Wind" is a historical novel set during the Indian rebellion of 1857 and delves into an exciting and gripping yarn of adventure, betrayal and political intrigue! Excerpt: "In the year 1854 Mrs.Lauriston's London drawing-room was as ugly as contemporary taste could make it. This is saying much, but not too much. The June sunshine slanted in, and rested with unsparing candour upon a cabbage-coloured carpet patterned with monstrous magenta blooms of uncertain family. Gloomy oil-paintings in gorgeous, fog-dimmed frames covered the greater part of the wall space. Helen Wilmot had never been able to decide whether she thought the wall-paper uglier than the portraits, or the portraits more frightful than the wall-paper..."

When Dhondu Pant Nana Saheb, the adopted son of exiled Maratha Peshwa Bajirao II, is denied rights as the Peshwa's heir by the British after his father's death, he makes an appeal to reclaim his title, only to be rebuffed again. Then, as a mutiny breaks out in Kanpur in 1857 and Nana Saheb emerges as its leader, he is labelled by the British as a villainous monster, a barbarous butcher and the criminal leader of the 'Sepoy Mutiny', which sweeps across India from 1856 to 1859. Yet, to a nation in turmoil, he becomes a hero who stands up to the colonial oppression and emerges as a forerunner to the leaders who bring freedom to the nation less than a century later. In The Devil's Wind, Nana Saheb's story-a significant, turbulent and intrigue-filled chapter in India's history-is skilfully brought to life by master storyteller Manohar Malgonkar in vivid, inventive detail.

A historical mystery that blends nautical adventure in pirate waters with a locked-room murder mystery, featuring a pirate sleuth whose wits are as sharp as his blade. 1723--Spider John, longing to escape the pirate life he never wanted, has an honest seafaring job at last, aboard a sailing vessel, and is returning to his beloved Em and their child. But when Captain Brentwood is murdered in his cabin, Spider's plans are tossed overboard. Who killed Redemption's captain? The mysterious pirate with a sadistic past? The beautiful redhead who hides guns beneath her skirt? One of the men pining for the captain's daughter? There are plenty of suspects. But how could anyone kill the captain in his locked quarters while the entire crew was gathered together on the deck? Before he can solve the puzzle, Spider John and his ex-pirate friends Hob and Odin will have to cope with violence, schemes, nosy Royal Navy officers, and a deadly trap set by the ruthless pirate Ned Low.

On a dark and stormy night one object after another joins in making eerie noises in the old house.

"The Devil's Wind" is a historical novel set during the Indian rebellion of 1857 and delves into an exciting and gripping yarn of adventure, betrayal and political intrigue! Excerpt: "In the year 1854 Mrs.Lauriston's London drawing-room was as ugly as contemporary taste could make it. This is saying much, but not too much. The June sunshine slanted in, and rested with unsparing candour upon a cabbage-coloured carpet patterned with monstrous magenta blooms of uncertain family. Gloomy oil-paintings in gorgeous, fog-dimmed frames covered the greater part of the wall space. Helen Wilmot had never been able to decide whether she thought the wall-paper uglier than the portraits, or the portraits more frightful than the wall-paper..."

It is 1853. Jeremy Maitland, the son of tenant farmers in Essex, England, faces the loss of all that he knows and loves with the sudden death of his father. His only hope for advancement in life lies with the military. He is accepted into The Rifle Brigade, an elite unit of the British Army. In little more than a year, Jeremy is fighting alongside French and Turkish troops against Russian forces in the Crimea. At the end of the war, with no reason to return to England, he transfers to The King's Royal Rifle Corps and his adventures take him to India just before the infamous Sepoy Mutiny. He is soon swept up in a devil's wind of betrayal and vengeance. Events take Jeremy from a siege at Cawnpore and escape through swamps and jungle, to the massive assault by the British to capture the Imperial City of Delhi and its king . . . with the shock of a lifetime in his future. While in India, Sergeant Jeremy Maitland falls in love with the pregnant wife of a British officer, he must kill one of his own men, he is privy to the shooting of a British officer, and he and a colleague uncover what they believe to be a fortune in precious stones. Powerful conflicts, a sympathetic protagonist, and a varied cast of interesting characters are set against exotic backgrounds and Victorian class distinctions. The story of The Devil's Wind is inspired by true events.