Book excerpt: Four action-packed thrillers from the author of The Wreck of the Mary Deareand “Great Britain’s leading adventure novelist” (Financial Times). British novelist Hammond Innes was perhaps best known for his nautical mystery, The Wreck of the Mary Deare, which was made into a film starring Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston. But the prolific writer, World War II veteran, and dedicated yachtsman wrote over thirty novels of adventure and suspense during his long career. The collected fiction here spans the globe—from Antarctica to the Hebrides, Cold War Germany to sun-soaked Greece. As always, “for sheer excitement Hammond Innes will be hard to beat” (Daphne du Maurier). Isvik: Isvik is a legend—a ghost ship that sits on the lip of Antarctica, two hundred years old at least, swallowed by the ice with severed masts and helmsman frozen to the wheel. Or so a glaciologist reported before his plane crashed on the ice shelf. Now, wealthy Scotsman Iain Ward is determined to find the frozen frigate—and he’s bringing along Peter Kettil, a wood preservation specialist and seasoned sailor himself. But Ward and Kettil are not the only ones willing to go to any lengths to discover the ship’s secrets . . . “[A] dramatic adventure that will keep readers guessing until its startling climax.” —Publishers Weekly Air Bridge: After his heroic service in World War II, pilot and aircraft engineer Neil Fraser must steal planes in order to make a living, flying them from England to the land that will soon become Israel. But when he’s caught by a ruthless tycoon, he’s forced to build the wealthy man a new aircraft engine. With dreams of conquering the sky, Bill Saeton wants Fraser to fly the plane over a divided Germany as part of the Berlin Airlift. But as Saeton’s ambition becomes a dangerous obsession, Fraser begins to look for a way to bail out. “Authentic and excellent . . . His plot, characters and suspense live up to the setting.” —San Francisco Chronicle Atlantic Fury: When a British army unit is ordered to evacuate from the remote, rocky island of Laerg in the Hebrides during a violent storm, it’s up to a pair of reunited brothers to save the group of soldiers—and each other. “Nothing short of superb.” —The New York Times Levkas Man: When his parents died, Paul was sent to Amsterdam to live with his mother’s old lover, the eccentric archaeologist Pieter Van der Voort, who was obsessed with the origins of man. After eight years at sea, Paul discovers Van der Voort is in Greece on an archaeological expedition that’s spiraling out of control. To reach Greece, Paul takes a job working for a smuggler, embarking on a journey that will carry him across the globe—and into the blackest depths of man’s most primal instinct. “Quick-action adventure—a particularly interesting background.” —The Daily Telegraph