The Faraway Drums

In India in the 1910s, the coronation of King George V as Emperor of India is to take place at the Great Durbar in Delhi. High in the Himalayas Major Clive Franol, soldier turned political agent, hears rumours of a plot to assassinate the King.

The year is 1911, the place India. The coronation of King George V as Emperor of India is to take place at the Great Durbar in Delhi.

High in the Himalayas Major Clive Farnol, soldier turned political agent, hears rumours of a plot to assassinate the King. Hurrying south, trying to piece together hints of the plot, he finds himself a target for assassination.

Joining a caravan of an exotic mix of characters on their way to the Durbar, he meets Bridie O'Brady, American newspaper-woman and anti-Imperialist. They fall in love, but their different backgrounds and the constant threat of death offer little hope that anything will come of their romance. But Jon Cleary's story is full of surprising twists and turns …

Under the waning sum of Empire, this is high adventure tinged with sadness for the era that is lost, as imperfect as it was glorious.

Reviews

PRAISE FOR JON CLEARY:

'When the ruminants and the lucre-chasers are growing lichen on library shelves Jon Cleary will continue to be read'
LOS ANGELES TIMES

'Enough plot twists and conspiracy-making ingredients to satisfy the most demanding aficionado of the genre'
IRISH TIMES

‘The business of a novelist is to tell a story. Jon Cleary has that talent in abundance’ SUNDAY EXPRESS

‘The Malone stories come alive through their setting … Cleary’s writing is seamless and his plots imaginative and mature’ MIAMI HERALD

‘Cleary is a national literary institution… If Australia has a crime writer who deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as Ed McBain, Ruth Rendell, and P.D James, then it is Cleary’ SYDNEY MORNING HERALDPRAISE FOR JON CLEARY:

'When the ruminants and the lucre-chasers are growing lichen on library shelves Jon Cleary will continue to be read'
LOS ANGELES TIMES

'Enough plot twists and conspiracy-making ingredients to satisfy the most demanding aficionado of the genre'
IRISH TIMES

‘The business of a novelist is to tell a story. Jon Cleary has that talent in abundance’ SUNDAY EXPRESS

‘The Malone stories come alive through their setting … Cleary’s writing is seamless and his plots imaginative and mature’ MIAMI HERALD

‘Cleary is a national literary institution… If Australia has a crime writer who deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as Ed McBain, Ruth Rendell, and P.D James, then it is Cleary’ SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

About the author

Jon Cleary, who died in July 2010, was the author of over fifty novels, including The High Commissioner, which was the first in a popular detective fiction series featuring Sydney Police Inspector Scobie Malone. In 1996 he was awarded the Inaugural Ned Kelly Award for his lifetime contribution to crime fiction in Australia. His last novel, FOUR-CORNERED CIRLCE, was published in 2007.