The Blue Ice

A race to find valuable mineral ore leads a group of men far into the icy and treacherous mountains of Norway

One of the century's great yarn-spinners...marvellously evocative...another manifestation of the Innes genius

Hammond Innes… surely the doyen of the well-made modern thriller

Mr Innes' work stands in a class by itself

Hammond Innes deals magnificently with disaster

Ralph Hammond Innes was born in Horsham, Sussex, on 15 July 1913 and educated at Cranbrook School, Kent. He left school aged eighteen, and worked successively in publishing, teaching and journalism. In 1936, in need of money in order to marry, he wrote a supernatural thriller, The Doppleganger, which was published in 1937 as part of a two-year, four book deal. In 1939 Innes moved to a different publisher, and began to write compulsively, continuing to publish throughout his service in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War. 
Innes travelled widely to research his novels and always wrote from personal experience - his 1940s novels The Blue Ice and The White South were informed by time spent working on a whaling ship in the Antarctic, while The Lonely Skier came out of a post-war skiing course in the Dolomites. He was a keen and accomplished sailor, which passion inspired his 1956 bestseller The Wreck of the Mary Deare. The equally successful 1959 film adaptation of this novel enabled Innes to buy a large yacht, the Mary Deare, in which he sailed around the world for the next fifteen years, accompanied by his wife and fellow author Dorothy Lang. 
Innes wrote over thirty novels, as well as several works of non-fiction and travel journalism. His thrilling stories of spies, counterfeiters, black markets and shipwreck earned him both literary acclaim and an international following, and in 1978 he was awarded a CBE. Hammond Innes died at his home in Suffolk on 10th June 1998.

It all begins with a lump of rock. To Bill Gansert, it seems a message from beyond the grave; the legacy of his one-time colleague George Farnell who disappeared in a storm of mystery and suspicion ten years ago. The rock, an enticing hint at a rich, hidden supply of mineral ore, leads Gansert and team of men to Norway and to a glacial labyrinth of mountains, following in Farnell's footsteps to the source of the ore. But others have heard of the rock, and the wealth it promises, and are also hot on the trail...

Maddon's Rock

From the master of suspense and adventure, a tale of vanished silver bullion, a false-hearted sea captain and his brave crew.

The doyen of the well-made modern thriller

Readers who quicken to the expert tempo of John Buchan's adventure stories will congratulate themselves on finding in Innes such an admirable inheritor of the high tradition

The story of the Trikkala is a strange one. 
Reported sunk in 1945, she sails into port one year later, barely afloat, her crew and valuable cargo missing. What happened during that year at sea? What secrets of betrayal and murderous greed were played out on the desolate islet of Maddon's Rock?

Air Bridge

A sensational tale of crime and courage in the shadow of the Berlin airlift

Swift and urgent, rising to a tremendous climax

Mr Innes’s work stands in a class by itself

Hammond Innes novels have brought countless hours of reading enjoyment to millions

The Soviets have cut off food and fuel supplies to West Berlin in a final attempt to force a stranglehold over the city. The Allied response is the Berlin airlift: thousands of planes carrying supplies - a lifeline to the people of the city. 
A chance for heroism perhaps, but not for Neil Fraser or Bill Saeton. One is an ex-RAF pilot on the run from the law, the other will stop at nothing to build the perfect aircraft engine. In an abandoned hangar in the British countryside, tensions rise to boiling point.

The Strode Venturer

A fast-moving, suspenseful tale that combines boardroom intrigues with seafaring adventures, from the author of The Wreck of the Mary Deare

Excellent...his expertise with volcanoes, avalanches, cave-ins and fire at sea is beyond question

Here is one of the sheerly enjoyable reading experiences of the year

Seamanship, storms, tension galore, money talk and a decent minimum of love - what more could one ask?

Yes! A rip-roarer...those action sequences at which he is so brilliant, the equatorial heat, the bubbling sea-bed, an outworn ship and a drunken skipper - splendid!

What could link the slick world of London boardrooms, an isolated island race in the Maldives and the mysterious voyages of a battered ship skippered by a brooding alcoholic? It falls to Geoffrey Bailey to unlock the mystery, but first he must overcome both family tragedy and the unpredictable treacheries of land, sea and big business.

Dead and Alive

From a quiet beach in Cornwall to Italy's vice-laden underworld, this is the compelling tale of one man's search for a new beginning

As crisply exciting as Eric Ambler and as convincingly realistic as C.S. Forester

They say people can’t write stories anymore. Tell that to Hammond Innes

Mr. Innes's readers were addicts when it came to his books, which were cinematic in sweep and sold 40 million copies

When David Cunningham returns to the Cornish coast to mourn a wartime love affair, he little imagines the mysterious quest that awaits him: it will lead him to the Mediterranean, to danger and a life of adventure, to the dark world of racketeering in Naples, the bleak hills beyond Tivoli, and a woman with a tragic past.

North Star

A story of love and inner turmoil played out against the churning Shetland seas

A master story-teller, at his best when the sea is one of the chief characters

Fast pace, terrific atmosphere, tension...Nobody can do this sort of thing better than Mr Innes

Hammond Innes must be one of the best tellers ever of the straightforward adventure in a harsh, well-researched setting

Ralph Hammond Innes was born in Horsham, Sussex, on 15 July 1913 and educated at Cranbrook School, Kent. He left school aged eighteen, and worked successively in publishing, teaching and journalism. In 1936, in need of money in order to marry, he wrote a supernatural thriller, The Doppleganger, which was published in 1937 as part of a two-year, four book deal. In 1939 Innes moved to a different publisher, and began to write compulsively, continuing to publish throughout his service in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War. 
Innes travelled widely to research his novels and always wrote from personal experience - his 1940s novels The Blue Ice and The White South were informed by time spent working on a whaling ship in the Antarctic, while The Lonely Skier came out of a post-war skiing course in the Dolomites. He was a keen and accomplished sailor, which passion inspired his 1956 bestseller The Wreck of the Mary Deare. The equally successful 1959 film adaptation of this novel enabled Innes to buy a large yacht, the Mary Deare, in which he sailed around the world for the next fifteen years, accompanied by his wife and fellow author Dorothy Lang. 
Innes wrote over thirty novels, as well as several works of non-fiction and travel journalism. His thrilling stories of spies, counterfeiters, black markets and shipwreck earned him both literary acclaim and an international following, and in 1978 he was awarded a CBE. Hammond Innes died at his home in Suffolk on 10th June 1998.

Michael Randall flees to the wild seas around the Shetlands to escape an impossible dilemma. There he finds a North Sea oil rig and the unlikely possibility of a new life. But one stormy night this glimmer of hope for the future, and Randall's life itself, is thrown into jeopardy.

The White South

A tense tale of disaster in the Antarctic - perfect fireside reading for cold winter evenings

Mr Innes tells his tale with a graphic power... An adventure story indeed, but worth ten of most modern novels

The White South will be hard to beat. I can still hear the roar of the ice as the great bergs close in upon those stranded men of the whaling fleet

A 22,000 ton whaling ship steams into a broken plain of white, glimmering ice during the howling fury of an Antarctic gale. What madness drives the ship forwards, deeper and deeper into the ice until its jagged edges hold her fast? Marooned amidst the pitiless, frozen wastes, the crew of the Southern Cross make a desperate attempt to survive against the odds.

The Black Tide

A drama about the ruinious effects of oil slicks, and two people who take a stand to save the coastal landscape they love

Thank God for Hammond Innes. He gets better with every book

Karen and Trevor have seen too many oil tankers run aground near Land's End, their poisonous cargo turning the waters black and suffocating all natural life for miles around. The Petros Jupiter is the latest devastating wreck, and tired of local committees that have no effect, Karen resolves on more drastic measures. It is left to her husband to unravel the tragedy and mystery that follow.

Attack Alarm

A thriller set against the unforgettable summer of 1940, the finest hour of the British Air Forces

Mr Innes is a marvellous storyteller, probably the best we have got

Hammond Innes must be one of the best tellers of the straightforward adventure in a harsh, well-researched setting

Thank goodness for Hammond Innes. He gets better with every book

The British have always been good at producing adventure story writers. Hammond Innes was exceptional even within an exceptional breed..he was...a romantic adventurer in the style of Rider Haggard, Robert Louis Stevenson and Rudyard Kipling

Summer, 1940. The skies above Britain are criss-crossed with the white scars of dog-fights as fighter pilots clash with the merciless German Luftwaffe. But one air defence gunner suspects the greatest threat to his country's safety might not come from the air, but from a secret plot now unfolding around him on the ground. Can he convince anyone to listen to his fears? Will they hear him in time?

Killer Mine

Smuggling and dark family secrets come to light in another classic from the master of thrilling adventure

Hammond Innes was a compulsive storyteller... he had an inborn ability to relate a fast-moving narrative with a knack that drove the story on and kept the reader in rapt attention

People say people can’t write stories anymore. Tell that to Hammond Innes

When Jim Pryce, a deserter from the army, returns secretly to his native Cornwall, he finds the coast cold and unfriendly. He is soon plunged into a hazardous world of crooks,contraband, madness and mysteries underneath the rocky cliffs.

Wreckers Must Breathe

The gripping story of two ordinary men who find the fate of the British navy and the security of British shores in their hands.

An uncommonly good story, capitally written

Absolutely first-class… magnificently maintained suspense

Great Britain’s leading adventure novelist

Wreckers Must Breathe had all the hallmarks which were to become quintessential Innes trademarks...adventure, excitement and... a gripping storyline

Ralph Hammond Innes was born in Horsham, Sussex, on 15 July 1913 and educated at Cranbrook School, Kent. He left school aged eighteen, and worked successively in publishing, teaching and journalism. In 1936, in need of money in order to marry, he wrote a supernatural thriller, The Doppleganger, which was published in 1937 as part of a two-year, four book deal. In 1939 Innes moved to a different publisher, and began to write compulsively, continuing to publish throughout his service in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War. 
Innes travelled widely to research his novels and always wrote from personal experience - his 1940s novels The Blue Ice and The White South were informed by time spent working on a whaling ship in the Antarctic, while The Lonely Skier came out of a post-war skiing course in the Dolomites. He was a keen and accomplished sailor, which passion inspired his 1956 bestseller The Wreck of the Mary Deare. The equally successful 1959 film adaptation of this novel enabled Innes to buy a large yacht, the Mary Deare, in which he sailed around the world for the next fifteen years, accompanied by his wife and fellow author Dorothy Lang. 
Innes wrote over thirty novels, as well as several works of non-fiction and travel journalism. His thrilling stories of spies, counterfeiters, black markets and shipwreck earned him both literary acclaim and an international following, and in 1978 he was awarded a CBE. Hammond Innes died at his home in Suffolk on 10th June 1998.

The spectre of another world war haunts journalist Walter Craig and disturbs the peace of his seaside holiday. But below the Cornish cliffs, hidden by churning seas, the enemy is very real indeed, and much closer than anyone could suspect. Craig and his singularly resourceful fisherman friend alone discover the terrible truth - a potentially devastating threat to Britain’s merchant ships - and alone must risk their lives against the might of the German navy. This is a classic wartime adventure from the master of suspenseful storytelling.

Campbell's Kingdom

A desperate man discovers friendship and foul play, love and greed high in the Rockies in this thrilling tale of hope and survival against the odds.

John Buchan, Stevenson, Henty and Rider Haggard would all, I think, look benevolently upon Mr. Innes

A fast and expertly managed story... the Rockies, the squalid 'ghost towns', the dam-building - alll memorably represented

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY ANDY MCNAB 
 
He was a man without hope, until a lawyer and a crazy inheritance spurred him to one last desperate roll of the dice. 
 
The old man was convinced, against all evidence, that there was oil in the Rocky mountains. So his grandson sets off to a godforsaken town of shattered hopes and bitter old men, and plunges into a perilous battle against hostile country, powerful enemies and a ticking clock.

The Wreck of the Mary Deare

From its dramatic first scenes amid a fierce gale on the Channel, Hammond Innes' classic tale sustains the tension through the twists of a courtroom battle to a nail-biting finale on the high seas.

A chap who writes books for other chaps gets a welcome reissue...The Wreck of the Mary Deare is a cracker

Original in its plot and extraordinarily clever in its constant succession of mysterious twists and surprising revelations, it is an utterly engrossing tale

The Wreck of the Mary Deare gave me a total love of thrillers and Hammond Innes is an absolutely brilliant writer

Hammond Innes (1913-1998) was a compulsive writer and traveller. He wrote over 30 books – thrillers with sturdy, plain-speaking British heroes at the centre; ordinary men caught up in impossible events. Innes journeyed all over the world, working as a journalist, whaler, soldier, but primarily sailing the high seas and racing in his yacht the Mary Deare. He turned all of his adventures into stories, and many of them were bestsellers.

The battered hulk of a huge ship looms out of the stinging spray of a furious gale. Only one man, half-mad, remains aboard, working without sleep or sustenance to save her from sinking. 
 
But this man is no hero, and this ship was not meant to be saved. As Hammond Innes' classic tale moves from desperate struggles on the sea to a nail-biting courtroom controversy, the murky truth about the last voyage of the Mary Deare finally comes to light.

Hammond Innes

From the first page we are gripped by that sense of tension, mystery and urgency that Hammond Innes so well commands...Gains excitement with every chapter...the climax could not be more tense

A superbly constructed and atmospheric thriller

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY STELLA RIMINGTON 
 
It lies somewhere beneath the snow, high in the Dolomites: Nazi gold, tainted with the blood of murdered men. Only a few know its secrets, and one by one they come in search of it – a hot-tempered Italian Comtessa, a racketeering pimp, a Greek criminal, a film-maker and a hapless writer. A tense battle of wits leads to an explosive finale in Innes’ classic tale of revenge and deadly greed.

Hammond Innes

Praise for The Lonely Skier

From the first page we are gripped by that sense of tension, mystery and urgency that Hammond Innes so well commands...Gains excitement with every chapter...the climax could not be more tense

First rate

A superbly constructed and atmospheric thriller

From the first page we are gripped by that sense of tension, mystery and urgency that Hammond Innes so well commands...Gains excitement with every chapter...the climax could not be more tense

First rate

A superbly constructed and atmospheric thriller

From the first page we are gripped by that sense of tension, mystery and urgency that Hammond Innes so well commands...Gains excitement with every chapter...the climax could not be more tense

First rate

A superbly constructed and atmospheric thriller

Books by Hammond Innes

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