by Poke Runyon

From the Tower of Darkness by Poke Runyon is an adventure novel set in Egypt and the Sudan in the closing years of the 19th century. The British Army is on the march to recapture Khartoum and defeat the Arab slave-raiding empire that controls the upper Nile —but French agents are plotting to smuggle modern arms to the tribesmen. The only man who can thwart this scheme is the intrepid British secret agent Captain Alan Vaughan, known as "Elan Pasha." Vaughan becomes amorously involved with a mysterious belly-dancing "princess," and the vivacious wife of his morose and secretive commanding officer. He hires a colorful band of cutthroats and fights a deadly shadow war in the back streets of Port Said and the deserts of the Sudan.

Exotic settings, erotic passions, deadly intrigues and ferocious battles characterize this well-researched tale of an earlier Middle Eastern conflict that will seem hauntingly familiar when compared to today’’s headlines. If James Bond needed a grandfather Alan Vaughan could certainly play the role.