Archie and Janet Roylance were on their honeymoon in South America when they decided to visit the small republic of Olifa. Initially impressed by its air of prosperous stability, they soon begin to find certain features puzzling. Why did men returning from the copper-mines look like the walking dead? Who was the strangely magnetic Castor? And what on earth was their old friend Sandy Arbuthnot doing here disguised as a hotel waiter?"

Books by this author: Fiction

John Burnet of Barns (1898)
No Man's Land (1898)
Grey Weather (1899)
A Lost Lady of Old Years (1899)
The Half-Hearted (1900)
The Watcher by the Threshold (1902)
A Lodge in the Wilderness (1906)
Prester John (1910)
The Moon Endureth (1912)
Salute to Adventurers (1915)
The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915)
The Power House (1916)
Greenmantle (1916)
Mr Standfast (1919)
The Path of the King (1921)
Huntingtower (1922)
Midwinter (1923)
The Three Hostages (1924)
John Macnab (1925)
The Dancing Floor (1926)
Witch Wood (1927)
The Runagates Club (1928)
The Courts of the Morning (1929)
Castle Gay (1930)
The Blanket of the Dark (1931)
The Gap in the Curtain (1932)
The Magic Walking Stick (1932)
A Prince of the Captivity (1933)
The Free Fishers (1934)
The House of the Four Winds (1935)
The Island of Sheep (1936)
Sick Heart River (also published as Mountain Meadow) (1941)
The Long Traverse (also published as Lake of Gold) (1941)
The Far Islands and Other Tales of Fantasy (1984)

Books by this author: Non-fiction

Scholar-Gipsies (1896)
The African Colony (1903)
The Law Relating to the Taxation of Foreign Income (1905)
Some Eighteenth Century Byways (1908)
Sir Walter Raleigh (1911)
What the Home Rule Bill Means (1912)
The Marquis of Montrose (1913)
Andrew Jameson, Lord Ardwall (1913)
Nelson's History Of The War. 24 volumes (1914-1919)
Britain's War by Land (1915)
The Achievement of France (1915)
Ordeal by Marriage (1915)
The Future of the War (1916)
The Battle of the Somme, First Phase (1916)
The Purpose of War (1916)
The Battle of Jutland (1916)
Poems, Scots and English (1917)
The Battle of the Somme, Second Phase (1917)
These for Remembrance (1919)
The Battle Honours of Scotland 1914-1918 (1919)
The History of the South African Forces in France (1920)
Francis and Riversdale Grenfell (1920)
The Long Road to Victory (1920)
A History of the Great War (1922)
A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys (1922)
The Last Secrets (1923)
A History of English Literature (1923)
Days to Remember (1923)
Some Notes on Sir Walter Scott (1924)
The History of the Royal Scots Fusiliers 1678-1918 (1925)
The Man and the Book: Sir Walter Scott (1925)
Two Ordeals of Democracy (1925)
Homilies and Recreations (1926)
The Kirk in Scotland (with George Adam Smith) (1930)
Montrose and Leadership (1930)
Lord Rosebery, 1847-1929 (1930)
The Novel and the Fairy Tale (1931)
Julius Caesar (1932)
Andrew Lang and the Borders (1932)
The Massacre of Glencoe (1933)
The Margins of Life (1933)
Gordon at Khartoum (1934)
Oliver Cromwell (1934)
The King's Grace (1935)
Augustus (1937)
The Interpreter's House (1938)
Presbyterianism Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1938)
Memory Hold-the-Door (also published as Pilgrim's Way) (1940)
Comments and Characters (1940)
Canadian Occasions (1940)

I have just started reading this, having been asked if I could send it to dark-draco, so will do that as soon as I finish.

Archie and Janet Roylance were on their honeymoon in South America when they decided to visit the small republic of Olifa. Initially impressed by its air of prosperous stability, they soon begin to find certain features puzzling...

Not a bad start, but sadly this is not one of Buchan's best. The plot takes a while to get going and there are too many characters, often introduced without sufficient explanation. His attempt at creating authenticating detail means that the novel loses pace midway (I nearly gave up altogether) and I am afraid I found the whole story lacked both conviction and coherence. It is clear that this is an attempt to tie together ideas and characters that arose during the creation of other works, and indeed there is great potential, but sadly it did not work for me this time.

By way of an aside, I have to confess I love the fantastically outdated attitudes of this author, so clearly arising not only from his era but also his social class. Not, I hasten to add, because I agree with them. Far from it. But it is extraordinary how unselfconscious he is about the most outrageous prejudices. Here are a few examples:

Don Alejandro...regarded four men who had taken their seats at a table a little way off...Two were small and dark and Jewish, and the fourth a short burly fellow, with the prognathous jaw of a negro but the luminous eyes of a Latin...

The town Oliferos were a small race, in which he thought there must be considerable negro blood, but the countryfolk were well-made and upstanding...

Archie...told himself that what he called a "dago revolution" had no charms for him, especially with Janet to take care of...

Sandy's voice was hard and angry. "Good God, this is no place for a woman. I don't like you going back alone but you're safer on the road than here...Give this note to Colonel Ackroyd, and after that go straight to bed. You understand, Miss Dasent. Those are my orders."

Clearly he was never anticipating a wide readership! Citizens of the USA are recommended to keep a stiff drink by them at all times...

Hope you enjoy it.

Received yesterday - thank you so much for agreeing to send this. I was determined to get all the Hannay books before reading them and this one was proving difficult to track down. So now I can enjoy the lot. Muchly appreciated!

I have to say that I really liked this - it is probably the best of the Hannay books I have read so far, although Richard Hannay actually has little to do with the story, except introduce it and notice that Sandy is acting oddly. Maybe it was the change from 1st person, to 3rd person, narrative that did it, but I found this a lot easier to read than the others. The story was a bit far-fetched, and I never really did get exactly why Castor was such a threat, but as a lover of fantasy fiction, I could forgive the weirdness and enjoy the story itself. Thank you again for sending this to me...I have one more Hannay book to read and then they will be travelling onwards as a set.

The whole series has been sent as a RABCK - hope you enjoy it.

Arrived in the post. Thank you!

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