The Island Where Time Stands Still

It began as an idyllic pleasure cruise in the South Seas. But then Sir Pellinore Gwaine-Cust's yacht hits a coral reef and sinks in minutes. Only one survivor ever reaches the safety of shore: Gregory Sallust.

But this is no ordinary island, no peaceful pearl of the Pacific. Gregory Sallust finds that he has escaped death only to be thrown into one of the most dangerous and bizarre adventures of his career - one that takes him deep into the mysterious and forbidden heart of the Orient.

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Dennis Wheatley is always prodigal in the richness of the fare he provides, and the island on which Gregory Sallust finds himself is no ordinary one. Here live a lost community of Chinese, ruled by descendants of the ancient Imperial House. When the throne suddenly becomes vacant, an expedition sets out to find the true heir. Its members include Gregory himself and the lady A-lu-te, as charmingly lovely as her name; their search leads ten thousand miles across the Pacific into the remotest regions of inland China and back again. Death in horrible forms and treachery follow them as closely as their shadows. Here we have fast-moving high adventure, with that tingle of the spine which tells us that this is vintage Wheatley, the master at his most skilful.

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First published in 1954 by Hutchinson