Plain Tales from the Hills contains 40 stories written by Rudyard Kipling, the author of The Jungle Book and Kim. Published in 1888, this was the first short story collection by Kipling. With the geographical meaning of "Plain" contrasted with "Hills", the title's pun hints at both the cleverly simple narrative style of the stories, and that many of the them are situated in the Hill Station of Simla, which served as the British

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"Calcutta, 1923. When a Hindu theologian is found murdered in his home, the city is on the brink of all-out religious war. Can the officers of the Imperial Police Force--Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant "Surrender-Not" Banerjee--track down those responsible in time to stop a bloodbath? Set at a time of heightened political tension, beginning in atmospheric Calcutta and taking the detectives all the way to bustling Bombay, the latest instalment in...

India, 1920. The fabulously wealthy kingdom of Sambalpore is home to tigers, elephants, diamond mines, and the beautiful Palace of the Sun. But when the heir to the throne is assassinated in the presence of Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant 'Surrender-Not' Banerjee, they discover a kingdom riven with suppressed conflict. Prince Adhir was a modernizer whose attitudes--and romantic relationships--may have upset the more religious elements of his country,...

As a Special Constable, Teddy Creque is the only police presence on the remote, sun-drenched island of Anegada, nestled in the heart of the British Virgin Islands. In all his years on the job, Teddy has never considered the possibility that he might have to address an actual crime on his peaceful island. That is, until he receives a hysterical call about a dead man on the beach. Indeed, Teddy is shocked to discover Paul Kelliher, a biologist who traveled...

Gandhi asks for one member of each family to join the fight for independence from the British, and when ten-year-old Anjali's mother is jailed for doing so, Anjali must step out of her comfort zone to take over her mother's work.

"John Auden was a pioneering geologist of the Himalaya. Michael Spender was the first to draw a detailed map of the North Face of Mount Everest. While their younger brothers--W. H. Auden and Stephen Spender--achieved literary fame, they vied to be included on an expedition that would deliver Everest's summit to an Englishman, a quest that had become a metaphor for Britain's struggle to maintain power over India. To this rivalry was added another:...

After opening an unexpected bride box, the Pasha finds there is a connection with practices long thought dead, meanwhile the head of the secret police investigates a little girl found traveling under a train from Luxor.

In 1818 India, Lt. Col. Richard Sharpe and Sergeant Major Patrick Harper are traveling across India, escorting the beautiful Marie-Angélique Bonnet to meet her fiancé. While in bandit-plagued badlands, they come across the very dregs of the Crown's troops : an ill disciplined, rag-tag unit led by boy soldier Beauclare. As Sharpe and company sit down to have dinner with their hosts, the camp comes under attack by the notorious bandit Chitu. When...

"A dozen women join a secret 1850s Arctic expedition--and a sensational murder trial unfolds when some of them don't come back. Eccentric Lady Jane Franklin makes an outlandish offer to adventurer Virginia Reeve: take a dozen women, trek into the Arctic, and find her husband's lost expedition. Four parties have failed to find him, and Lady Franklin wants a radical new approach: put the women in charge. A year later, Virginia stands trial for murder....