The Vultures

In The Vultures, Henry Seton Merriman plots a taut, fast-moving story of international intrigue which seems as though it could’ve been written in the modern era rather than in the Victorian.

Reginald Cartoner, a British agent, and his counterpart in the French service, Paul Deulin, have worked with and against one another for many years, building a mutual professional respect and a wary friendship. They and an American, Joseph Mangles, are known by political insiders as “vultures”—men whose sudden arrival in a seemingly peaceful place presages the end of that calm and the start of a crisis which will command the world’s attention. All three have just arrived in Warsaw, the principal city of what was formerly a free Polish state but which is now brutally controlled by the Russian Empire of Tsar Aleksandr II.

Prince Bukaty, his son Prince Martin, and his daughter Princess Wanda, whose power and wealth were stripped by the Russians decades earlier, maintain their connections throughout Europe and secretly lay the groundwork for revolt; in this they’re joined by the radical Kosmaroff, whose origins are as mysterious as his methods are ruthless. As the Polish people await the trigger for their revolution, they’re uncertain whether the three vultures have been sent to aid, to oppose, or to simply observe them, or even whether the three are cooperating or at cross-purposes with one another. As personal connections amongst all of the players are strained by conflicting duties and national loyalties, their situation in Poland becomes more perilous by the moment.