Dennis Yates Wheatley (1897-1977) was an English author whose prolific output of stylish thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling writers from the 1930s through the 1960s. His Gregory Sallust series was one of the main inspirations for Ian Fleming's James Bond stories.
Born in South London, he was the eldest of three children of an upper-middle-class family, the owners of Wheatley & Son of Mayfair, a wine business. He admitted to little aptitude for schooling, and was expelled from Dulwich College. Soon after his expulsion Wheatley became a British Merchant Navy officer cadet on the training ship HMS Worcester. During the Second World War, Wheatley was a member of the London Controlling Section, which secretly coordinated strategic military deception and cover plans. His literary talents gained him employment with planning staffs for the War Office. He wrote numerous papers for the War Office, including suggestions for dealing with a German invasion of Britain. During his life, he wrote more than 70 books which sold over 50 million copies.

Kem Lincoln, ex-Commando and British secret agent, was sent on a special mission to South America. He knew at the outset that it was an assignment fraught with danger, but, amidst the politics and the affairs, he was not expecting the extra complications of extra-terrestrials and abduction. Powering through space to planet Mars, how will the unlikely threesome of Kem, his mistress, and her husband, work together to return home to earth? And when they meet a second group of captors, will they help or hinder each others' return?