THE BLACK GANG

McNeile, H.C. As 'Sapper': Introduced By Ion Trewin

ISBN 10: 0460022458 / ISBN 13: 9780460022453

Published by J. M. Dent & Sons, London, United Kingdom, 1983

About this Item

1st prtg. Page edges age toned else about fine copy of this trade sized paperback. Introduction by Ion Trewin. Cover illustration by Simon Loxley. Although the First World War is over, it seems that the hostilities are not. When Captain Hugh "Bulldog"Drummond and his pals discover that foreigners are infiltrating all levels of English society -- bribing, blackmailing and undermining England s democratic tradition -- their course is clear -- the Black Gang is formed bent on tracking down the perpetrators of such Bolshevik plots and rescuing their victims. They set a trap to lure the criminal mastermind behind these subversive attacks to England, and all is going according to plan until Bulldog Drummond accepts an invitation to tea at the Ritz with a charming American clergyman and his dowdy daughter.

Seller Inventory # 020237

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE BLACK GANG
• Publisher: J. M. Dent & Sons, London, United Kingdom
• Publication Date: 1983
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0460022458
• ISBN 13: 9780460022453
• Binding: Pictorial Wrappers
• Illustrator: Loxley, Simon
• Edition: 1st Prtg.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Book Type: Trade Paperback
• Seller catalogs:
  • PyB 5 Oversize
  • England
  • Historical
  • Paperback

About this title

Synopsis

Although the First World War is over, it seems that the hostilities are not, and when Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond discovers that a stint of bribery and blackmail is undermining England’s democratic tradition, he forms the Black Gang, bent on tracking down the perpetrators of such plots. They set a trap to lure the criminal mastermind behind these subversive attacks to England, and all is going according to plan until Bulldog Drummond accepts an invitation to tea at the Ritz with a charming American clergyman and his dowdy daughter

About the Author

Sapper is the pen name of Herman Cyril McNeile, born in 1888 at the Naval Prison in Bodmin, Cornwall, where his father was Governor. He served in the Royal Engineers (popularly known as 'sappers') from 1907-19, being awarded the Military Cross during World War 1.

He started writing in France, adopting a pen name because serving officers were not allowed to write under their own names. When his first stories, about life in the trenches, were published in 1915, they were an enormous success. But it was his first thriller, Bulldog Drummond (1920) that launched him as one of the most popular novelists of his generation. It had several amazingly successful sequels, including The Black Gang, The Third Round and The Final Count. Another great success was Jim Maitland (1923), featuring a footloose English sahib in foreign lands.

Sapper published nearly thirty books in total, and a vast public mourned his death when he died in 1937, at the early age of forty-eight. So popular was his 'Bulldog Drummond' series that his friend, the late Gerard Fairlie, wrote several Bulldog Drummond stories after his death under the same pen name, which had by then become synonymous with fast-paced, intelligent thrillers and complex, vibrant characters.