Beau Geste : A Novel

Plot

The three Geste brothers, orphaned early in life, are raised by an Aunt. Their raucous youths are filled with the literature of adventure and ritualized horseplay centered around these myths and legends. So when the family's prized Blue Water sapphire turns up missing, each of the young men confesses to being the thief in order to protect the others and one by one they head off to join the French Foreign Legion. As luck would have it, they meet up in the deserts of Africa where they fall under the command of the malevolent Sergeant Lejaune. Not content to merely be a martinet, Lejaune sets his sights on stealing the jewel, which rumor holds to be in their possession. Meanwhile, the unruly troops he commands are planning a mutiny and the marauding Tauregs pin this badly outnumbered and bitterly divided unit of Legionnaires at Fort Zinderneuf. The ensuing drama plays itself out as the French forces battle overwhelming odds. Ultimately, only a handful of men survive to discover the truth behind the Blue Water's disappearance.
It just doesn't get any better than that central story, A TRULY THRILLING STORY AT THE HEART OF THE NOVEL, Wren combines a classic mystery and a desert adventure. The Gestes are living embodiments of the tales on which they were weaned--generous, noble, brave and loyal. My only real complaint is with the framing device which surrounds the story. The novel opens with a major who lead the relief column sent to Zinderneuf describing what he found there and concludes with an overlong dénouement getting the story back to England and the jewel mystery. --REVIEW FROM AMAZON.COM