The Burning Sky

Written by Jack Ludlow

Narrated by Jonathan Keeble

1935: Cal Jardine is a soldier of fortune. Forced to leave Hamburg, he is recruited by a secretive British committee to smuggle guns to Abyssinia. But first Jardine must procure the weapons from Romania. Taken to the Horn of Africa, the arms are then transported over a harsh landscape into the hands of the Ethiopian Army. On his travels Jardine acquires more baggage than he anticipated, including a beautiful, but difficult American female in search of her archaeologist mother, a determined reporter and a daredevil French flyer, while missing out on a painful death by sheer good fortune. But the Ethiopians are ill-equipped to a face a modern Italian army using tanks, bombers, and poison gas. Trained for war, can Jardine simply walk away? (web)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Soundings
• Release date: Jul 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781407926605

Jack Ludlow

Jack Ludlow is the pseudonym of David Donachie, who was born in Edinburgh in 1944. The author of a number of bestselling books, he now lives in Deal.

Reviews for The Burning Sky

[Alexander Anderson · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Well crafted entertainment.

I hadn’t previously read this author. He’s done his homework and is a good historical craftsman, giving a real sense of the characters and how they fit into the historical time period he’s concentrating on, for this novel, Italy’s second war in Abyssinia.

Ludlow furnishes the contextual feel of the era, but doesn’t overindulge in worn, or well known stereotypes for his characters or tricks to do this.

Good stuff.

Johnathan Keeble adds his usual eloquence and well enunciated class
To the production.