The Iron Duke

L. Ron Hubbard

Jan 2007 · Galaxy Press LLC

About this ebook

He's a lady's man, a man's man--and a wanted man, on the run in 1930s Europe....

Meet conman Blacky Lee, ruggedly handsome with a quick wit and a roguish charm. Think Clark Gable--with larceny in his heart and a price on his head. A price put there by the German Gestapo.

But Blacky's always got an angle, and this time it's as audacious as they come. He'll hide in plain sight, with the stolen identity of the crowned head of a Balkan kingdom--the Iron Duke.

Can he pull it off? Win the love of a country beset with communism ... and of the beautiful Countess? All Blacky has to do is risk everything--and, for once in his life, find a way to do the right thing and reform.

Hubbard and Gable were fast friends and fellow adventurers. While Hubbard was writing for Columbia Pictures in 1937, the studio often called upon him to doctor scripts for Gable--giving him a unique knowledge of the man and inspiration for characters like Blacky Lee.

"Colorful prose, lively action writing, exotic locales...excellent." --Ellery Queen

About the author

L. Ron Hubbard was born in Tilden, Nebraska on March 13, 1911. He attended George Washington University and Princeton University. He began his career as a writer for pulp magazines and later as a science fiction writer. His science fiction works include the Buckskin Brigades, Final Blackout, Fear, The Kingslayer, and Black Towers to Danger. His book, Dianetics, was published in 1950. He spent the next 30 years devoting himself to the development of Dianetics and Scientology. In 1954, he founded the Church of Scientology. In the 1980s, he published his final fiction works Battlefield Earth and the Mission Earth series, which won the Cosmos 2000 Award from French readers and the Nova Science Fiction Award from Italy's Perseo Libri. He died on January 24, 1986.