E. Hoffmann Price 24 min read

A sultan calmly fingers the bullet meant for him, weighing which of his many enemies just fired from the minaret.

E. Hoffmann Price's 1929 tale drops us into the intrigue-ridden court of Schamas ad Din, where assassination attempts are a matter of dry wit and the British Resident lurks behind every plot. Colorful Oriental-adventure pulp from a master of exotic atmosphere and Price's beloved desert settings. Read it for richly textured golden-age adventure, all scheming viziers and elegant menace.

In its time

Published in 1929, during the 1920s, the pulp era proper.

Reading it

24 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

Hugh Rankin