Solomons Seal

by Hammond Innes

Overview

'It was a weapon fashioned by somebody with experience and understanding of a deadly primitive craft, and the red paint on the tip could be nothing else but a simulation of the blood of the intended victim. The masked doll and the weapon, the two together…and the blood-red sky fading above me. I felt suddenly cold and appalled'.

When Perenna Holland, descendant of a once powerful shipping family, is forced to sell her home on the English seacoast, the inventory turns up in an album of curious old stamps. Her fascination with their provenance takes estate agent Roy Slingsby on an eventful voyage to a South Pacific island where new technology and old sorcery coexist in uneasy tension.

As a long-feared insurrection explodes on the island, Roy finds his own fate now inexorably ties to that of the Holland family. And, still pursuing the mystery of the stamps, he unravels a dark secret rooted in long-ago murder, revenge and thwarted ambition.

"Along with echoes of Robert Louis Stevenson, Innes includes evocations of Joseph Conrad, elements of the Gothic novel and the atmospher of one of those splendid, slow-moving detective stories that the British do so well" - The Washington Post

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781448210947
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	02/25/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	1
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ralph Hammond Innes (1914-1998) was an English adventure author who wrote over thirty novels as well as children's and travel books.

He was born in Horsham, Sussex. Educated at Cranbrook School in Kent he left in 1931 to work as a journalist, initially with the Financial Times. The Doppelganger, his first novel was published in 1937.

In WWII he served in the Royal Artillery, eventually rising to the rank of Major. During the war a number of his books were published. After being demobbed in 1946 he worked full-time as a writer, achieving a number of early successes. His had sixteen further novels published before 1960, producing books in a regular sequence of six months travel and research and then six months of writing, many featuring the sea.

His rate of work was reduced from the 1960s but was still substantial, and he became more interested in ecological themes. Innes continued writing until just before his death.
Ralph Hammond Innes (1914-1998) was an English adventure author who wrote over thirty novels as well as children's and travel books.

He was born in Horsham, Sussex. Educated at Cranbrook School in Kent he left in 1931 to work as a journalist, initially with the Financial Times. The Doppelganger, his first novel was published in 1937.

In WWII he served in the Royal Artillery, eventually rising to the rank of Major. During the war a number of his books were published. After being demobbed in 1946 he worked full-time as a writer, achieving a number of early successes. His had sixteen further novels published before 1960, producing books in a regular sequence of six months travel and research and then six months of writing, many featuring the sea.

His rate of work was reduced from the 1960s but was still substantial, and he became more interested in ecological themes. Innes continued writing until just before his death.