The Tiger WarriorBy David Gibbins
Headline Publishing 2009
Another Jack Howard adventure story. This was a bit out of my league as it involved India, China and the remains of the army of Crassus, who lost a battle at Carrhae in 53 BC.
In 1879 Lieutenant John Howard, Royal Engineers, arrived at the Godavari river in southern India to survey the land for the British. He witnesses something unspeakable and then disappears.
In the present day, John Howard's great great grandson, Jack Howard is diving in the Red Sea and makes an astonishing discovery. What he finds leads him and his team to India and from there to Afghanistan, to Central Asia and finally to Western China.
There is a lot of history in this novel. David Gibbons, the author, has notes at the back. The following events mentioned in this novel are true, he says.
Crassus' last battle at Carrhae
Rampa Rebellion of 1879-81 in India
While the battle at Carrhae was real, the fate of the survivors as told in this novel is fiction.
The Rampa rebellion was explained in quite some detail, as there are a number of surviving british military journals giving details.
How these two events are connected is totally fictional, but it still makes a great story.
No comments:
Post a Comment