Contraband

Published in 1936, the first in the Gregory Sallust series sets up our leading man in style with this fast-paced, twist-laden caper novel.

Contraband is the first in Dennis Wheatley's bestselling Gregory Sallust series featuring the debonair spy Gregory Sallust, a forerunner to Ian Fleming’s James Bond.

Gregory Sallust is a British Intelligence agent; a self-reliant thrill seeker with a love of adventure and a weakness for women.

As Sallust enjoys a holiday in France before starting a new mission, he is intrigued by a beautiful woman in a casino. Captivated by the elusive Sabine, he follows her to a rendezvous with a mystery airman at midnight. The next morning, Sallust finds himself under attack and, although he escapes danger, Sabine disappears.

Returning to England, Sallust discovers a ring of smugglers orchestrating the dispatch of heavy bombers with contraband goods. When he discovers that an inspector from Scotland Yard is also on the case, and that Sabine may be involved, his loyalties are torn.

In a thrilling start to the Gregory Sallust series, Contraband is a story of international intrigue where planes flit by night to secret landing grounds, and near-death experiences are masterfully stretched to nail-biting conclusions.

Dennis Wheatley was an English author whose prolific output of stylish thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling writers from the 1930s through the 1960s. His first book, The Forbidden Territory, became a bestseller overnight, and since then his books have sold over 50 million copies worldwide. During the 1960s, his publishers sold one million copies of Wheatley titles per year, and his Gregory Sallust series was one of the main inspirations for Ian Fleming's James Bond stories. Wheatley served in the Army, Navy and Air Force during the two World Wars and had a lifelong passion for studying history and the Black Arts. He was married twice and had one son by his first wife.