The Courts of the Morning

After Richard Hannay is approached by American diplomats regarding the disappearance of a wealthy industrialist, he in turn seeks the help of his friend Sandy Arbuthnot. Soon, however, Arbuthnot himself goes missing. The story continues in the fictional country of Olifa, located somewhere along the west coast of South America, where a powerful head of a mining company is gradually enslaving the populace. It seems that only guerrilla warfare will save the country from rule under a ruthless tyrant. Some of John Buchan’s more famous works, like The Thirty-Nine Steps, are fast-paced thrillers. But while The Courts of the Morning contains plenty of excitement, it also has more measured passages in which Buchan works out a particular military philosophy and an approach to international relations. Its accounts of military engagement also owe something to his massive and carefully documented multi-volume history of the First World War.