Reports reach the Foreign Office in November 1915 of ‘A star rising in the West’ a mysterious Islamic movement thought strong enough to unleash a jihad. It must be stopped for the sake of the war effort, but the only clues are scribbled on a scrap of paper retrieved from the body of a British secret agent. The daunting mission is entrusted to Richard Hannay and two companions: John S. Blenkiron, an eccentric and dyspeptic American agent, and Sandy Arbuthnot, a Near Eastern expert. A pulsating story, Greenmantle confirmed Buchan as a master of the thriller genre.