Talbot Mundy

India, 1857: a young British officer and a Rajput princess, a fakir who is not what he seems, and a fortress that must hold when the Mutiny comes. Mundy was born William Gribbon, spent his twenties in India and East Africa as an ivory poacher and confidence man, and was jailed for it before reinventing himself in America; the disreputable years are why his India smells right.