Third Hour
A reckless Spanish adventurer and a British workingman join forces in a dangerous hunt for hidden treasure
By the age of twenty-seven, Manuel Vargas has already lived more than most men. A restless adventurer and world traveler, he has journeyed far from his home in Spain, and now fate and tragedy have deposited him into the ranks of the Mexican revolutionary army. But when he discovers that a passenger train he and his fellow rebel confederates have blown off the tracks is carrying a fortune in gold, his life takes yet another strange turn.
Meanwhile, in London, a traveling salesman named Toby plies his ordinary trade, unaware of what destiny has in store for him. When Vargas and Toby cross paths, two very different men will be united by their wild desires and dreams as they set off together on a perilous quest for treasure that could be their salvation—or their doom.
In the decade preceding the Second World War, the remarkable Geoffrey Household
had already won praise far and wide for his ability to add rare depth and intelligence to the classic thriller. Thoughtful and unforgettable, filled with unexpected turns and richly drawn characters, The Third Hour is a masterful demonstration of everything that a suspenseful and deeply human adventure novel can be.
Geoffrey Household
Geoffrey Household (1900–1988) was born in England. In 1922 he earned a bachelor of arts degree in English literature from the University of Oxford. After graduation, he worked at a bank in Romania before moving to Spain in 1926 and selling bananas as a marketing manager for the United Fruit Company.
In 1929 Household moved to the United States, where he wrote children’s encyclopedia content and children’s radio plays for CBS. From 1933 to 1939, he traveled internationally as a printer’s-ink sales rep. During World War II, he served as an intelligence officer for the British army, with posts in Romania, Greece, Syria, Lebanon, and Persia. After the war, he returned to England and wrote full time until his death. He married twice, the second time in 1942 to Ilona Zsoldos-Gutmán, with whom he had three children, a son and two daughters.
Household began writing in the 1920s and sold his first story to the Atlantic Monthly in 1936. His first novel, The Terror of Villadonga, was published during the same year. His first short story collection, The Salvation of Pisco Gabar and Other Stories, appeared in 1938. Altogether, Household wrote twenty-eight novels, including four for young adults; seven short story collections; and a volume of autobiography, Against the Wind (1958). Most of his novels are thrillers, and he is best known for Rogue Male (1939), which was filmed as Man Hunt in 1941 and as a TV movie under the novel’s original title in 1976.
