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Sadler, Adam. Red Ending. London and Melbourne: Ward, Lock & Co., Limited, 1928. First edition. Octavo, pp. [1-6] 7-314 [315-320: publisher's ads]. Original red cloth, front and spine panels stamped in black. Faint pencil sketch on front free endpaper. Very slight hint of fading to spine panel, rear free endpaper removed, still generally a very good copy of a rather scarce book. #3347. $45. Novel of international intrigue, adventure and future war, set partly in England and partly in Central Asia near India where a rogue Russian, Rakovsky, has assembled an army of foreign mercenaries to try to take India from the British. The style is partly Buchanesque, with a semi-amateur hero Jim Marsh entering the fray to save the empire's crown jewel. Jim is a born adventurer and admirably loyal to his own crew of international fighters, utterly indifferent to such things as race and social class. After severe shell shock in the war, he had married his nurse, a high-society beauty who does not like or even understand her husband's true nature. This friction introduces a darker and ultimately tragic note into the story, putting it on a dramatic trajectory not likely to be found in Buchan. A likeable feature here is that the story is narrated by Marsh's friend and neighbor, a middle-aged gentleman who is a thoroughly stay-at-home, indoorsy type with a bit of money, no sex appeal and no thirst for danger -- but he acknowledges all this. The broad arc of the story is a continuation of "The Great Game" contest in the 19th century between Russia and Great Britain for influence in Central Asia. The author's story comes across in hindsight as an exaggerated wish-fulfillment fantasy about the power of Britain, hampered by a dismissive attitude towards Russia, a blindness to the festering political energies in Germany, and no inkling of the economic storm about to break out across the world. A hint of the supernatural is introduced via the figure of Fanny, a gypsy in England who lives near Marsh. She is treated respectfully by March and is given to dark prophetic utterances, which turn out to carry some weight. Clarke, Tale of the Future, p. 56. Clarke, Voices Prophesying War, p. 238. Seller Inventory # 3347
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