MATA HARI ESCAPES HARDCOVER Signed Hurt

A profusely illustrated prose novel presenting a fictionalized adventure of the legendary woman whose beauty captivated and subverted every acquaintance. From a 2021 Kickstarter project, our supply is very limited. "Mata Hari Escapes is a rip-roaring adventure story with the pace of a Saturday serial and the intrigue of a Graham Greene spy story." Nudity. Full color illustrations. Nigel Charteris is getting old, but still carries a loaded Webley revolver and can hit a fingernail at a hundred paces. In 1901, he arrives in the wild, untamed port of Surabaya, Java to sell a few machine guns and relax. But then he runs into the loveliest woman he's ever seen. She's in a cage and for sale. Unable to restrain himself, he tries to rescue her -- it's the first of many failed attempts: This woman is more than able to help herself. In the thick of World War I, he meets her again in Paris. Now she's call Mata Hari -- the most famous exotic dancer and courtesan in France. But she's suspected of being a German spy, in trouble again. This time Charteris does help her. But he runs afoul of the authorities and they both must escape from France. What follows is a hair-raising flight across the battlefields of Belgium, Berlin, Turkey, Palestine and the Sinai Desert as they are pursued by the most capable and deadliest villains in Europe and Asia. But "Mata Hari Escapes" is also a love story, though not in the way you might expect. The world has its own plans for her -- and for him. Jim Silke has had a career of assorted professions: Executive Art Director for Capitol Records; publisher and editor of Cinema and Movies International magazines; author of the Frank Frazetta Death Dealer novels as well as of Here's Looking At You, Kid, a history of the Warner Bros. film studio. Jim was also the screenwriter for the films Revenge of the Ninja, Sahara, Ninja 3: the Domination, King Solomon's Mines and The Barbarians. In the comics realm, Jim wrote and illustrated the graphic novels Rascals in Paradise and Bettie Page, Queen of the Nile along with several books on popular culture, such as Bettie Page, Queen of Hearts, Pin-Up, the Illegitimate Art, Nude and others. He also designed costumes for major feature films, including The Wild Bunch and it was with the famed director of that film, Sam Peckinpah, that he first became a writer, working on countless TV shows and films. "Mata Hari Escapes is a rip-roaring adventure story with the pace of a Saturday serial and the intrigue of a Graham Greene spy story."  Christopher Moore, New York Times bestselling author of Lamb, Fool and A Dirty Job. "Jim Silke is an artist with words as well as pictures, and his imagination -- infused with enthusiasm for the great storytelling of the past -- creates an epic romance in every sense of the word."  Max Allan Collins, author of Road to Perdition.