The Golden Salamander

Victor Canning

Apr 2013 · Pan Macmillan

About this ebook

David Redfern, widowed and at a crossroads in his academic career, journeys to a tiny African port, where he becomes the centre of the small community’s intrigue. There to catalogue and transport an ancient and mystical collection of artefacts from the house of the major, David unwittingly stumbles upon a sinister secret of the present. Faced with a decision which will change the course of his own life as well as his new friends’, David is thrust into a tale of danger, deception and misplaced trust. Culminating in a high speed chase across the cliff tops, David must employ the tactics of his wartime years to survive.

About the author

Victor Canning was primarily a writer of thrillers, and wrote his many books under the pseudonyms Julian Forest and Alan Gould. Among his immediate contemporaries were Eric Ambler, Alistair Maclean and Hammond Innes.

Canning was a prolific writer throughout his career, which began young: he had sold several short stories by the age of nineteen and his first novel, Mr Finchley Discovers His England (1934) was published when he was twenty-three. Canning also wrote for children: his The Runaways trilogy was adapted for US children’s television.

Canning’s later thrillers were darker and more complex than his earlier work and received great critical acclaim. The Rainbird Pattern was awarded the CWA Silver Dagger in 1973 and nominated for an Edgar award in 1974.

In 1976 The Rainbird Pattern was transformed by Alfred Hitchcock into the comic film Family Plot, which was to be Hitchcock’s last film. Several of Canning’s other novels including Golden Salamander (1949) were also made into films during Canning’s lifetime.