King -- of the Khyber Rifles / by Talbot Mundy

[Kim Allen Scott]

I figure when a book has been made into a movie twice it might be worth reading, if for nothing else to see what sort of word pictures the author painted that inspired a screenwriter.  In this book, the author does a great job of description, but falls a little short in character development and taxes one’s credulity.  Athelstan King is an officer with the British Secret Service in India and is assigned to work with a mysterious female chieftain Yasmini in an effort to neutralize the threat of an Afghan invasion of India during World War I.  Along the way he meets an assortment of odd characters (with some faint resemblance to the modern-day Taliban) and infiltrates a fantastic hollow mountain fortress by disguising himself as a native.  My major complaint with the book was the character of King himself, who we never seem to really know.  For example, when presented with the head of his own brother, killed while defending a Khyber pass fort, King is never even described as feeling any grief in the course of maintaining his disguise.  A harmless read, but hardly recommended.