LORD OF THE ATLAS — Colin Falconer

Marrakesh 1893: Two former army officers are offered a small fortune to help the Sultan of Morocco quell a rebel uprising. It seems like the easiest money they'll ever make.But they couldn't be more wrong.They are forced to battle the wild bandit armies of ruthless prophet-warlord, Bou Hamra, through the snows of the Atlas Mountains and the baking deserts of the Sahara.They are traded, kidnapped, and used as pawns in high-stakes political rivalries. They encounter women who worship cannons for fertility and magician-warlords who talk to the dead and play bloody games of chess with living slaves.And the muzzle-loading cannon the Sultan has hired them to command are antiques that could explode in their faces at any moment. Then there is the Lord of the Atlas, Amastan el-Karim, who harbours a shocking secret that will change everything.This is adventure on a breath-taking scale, evoking the beautiful and the barbaric of nineteenth-century Morocco, and transporting the reader to a now-lost world.