The Pass Beyond Kashmir

Author: Berkely Mather (aka John Evan Weston Davies)

First Published: 1960

Pages: 252

This is another thriller reprint in eBook format from Ostara Publishing, in their Top Notch Thriller range. My review of The Eliminator by Andrew York was from the same company. They have been putting some very good novels into the  platform.

The Pass Beyond Kashmir was written by Berkely Mather, a thriller writer whose reign during the sixties has somewhat been forgotten all these years later by the general public.

His first novel-length thriller was The Achilles Affair, published in 1959 when he was 50 years old. It was critically lauded - Ian Fleming was quoted as describing it as “one thriller which I can unreservedly recommend”. However, with his second book, The Pass Beyond Kashmir, he drew on his mysterious experiences in India and it established Mather as one of the top thriller-writers of the period. He went on to have fifteen fiction novels published into the eighties.

Mather was born in Gloucester, England in 1906 and died in 1996. His writing career tailed off in the early eighties when he completed a family saga trilogy. The success of The Pass Beyond Kashmir brought him a lot of attention, notably from Ian Fleming, who suggested that Mather should write the script for the first James Bond film, Dr No. A script was already in existence by that time, so Mather took a look and lightened it considerably, injecting some camp satire into the character of Bond. As we all know, under other writers, this was exaggerated enormously in later films. Although he was offered a percentage of the take for his work, Mather disastrously decided to accept a flat fee.


Mather himself, or rather Davies to give him his real name, is a man with a mysterious history. As has been said before by others, "there is the official story, and there is the 'alternative' real story". For more information you could do no wrong by visiting the Ostara Publishing website and reading the article written there (http://www.ostarapublishing.co.uk/article-124.html) by his son, Wynne Weston-Davies.

The plot of The Pass Beyond Kashmir is pure high adventure. It reminded me in some ways of The 39 Steps by John Buchan because it is essentially a chase/journey structure with a Hitchcock-like MacGuffin as the driving force.

The story begins in Bombay, India, and takes the reader on a thrill-ride through that country to Pakistan via Delhi, and then across into Kashmir and onto the Himalayas where the Kashmiri, Chinese and Tibetan nations are fighting for control of the remote lands.

Our hero, Idwal Rees, is a Welshman who has lived in India, Burma and China. As the story opens he is based in Bombay and describes himself as "not a private detective in the accepted sense of the term" who has spent so long in the region that he speaks the languages and knows the locals and their practises, especially those in the criminal fraternity. Rees is a good man to have if you want to get something slightly illegal done without drawing the attention of the local police forces; someone who can traverse the multicultural landscape in the region.

Rees has been hired by company representative Smedley to locate the sole survivor of an expedition to the Himalyas. The book opens as they finally meet this man, a Major Polson - alcoholic and debt-ridden, desperate to turn a profit by any means. Polson was in the army when the expedition took place, and was the only man to return alive. Rumours have begun to circulate amongst the European syndicates that the expedition may have turned up proof that a very valuable natural resource has been located in the mountains of Kashmir, resources that drive the world and will make everyone extremely rich.

Polson claims to know where evidence can be found in the form of a report, buried in the Himalyas by his delirious colleagues before they died and he was carried down. For a large fee, Polson agrees to take Smedley to the precise location of the buried documents. Rees also agrees to accompany Smedely, and with Rees's Pathan aide Safaraz, they plan the trip to assist him to get from Bombay to the Pakistani border.

What follows is a super little thriller that takes the reader on a no-holds barred journey through the Indian and Pakistan countryside, with Rees, Safaraz and Smedely trying to avoid the attention of local Police forces, criminals and rioters, enemy syndicate agents and an ever ticking clock in order to meet up with Polson in Kashmir. Mather spent a lot of time in India and it shows. His grasp of the language and landscape and local cultures is superb. This is a race across foreign lands that reads very quickly in a first person narrative (Rees's point of view), and never becomes boring despite the repetitive nature of trying to describe a mundane event (i.e. getting from a to b).

I have to say I am a sucker for books set in countries I am not very familiar with myself, and I have read a few based in India which I always seem to enjoy. But Mathers skill in keeping the pace of the action high, even when the heroes are taking a well deserved rest is great. I was never bored, there was always something new just around the corner.

Rees and Smedley are supported by a collection of other colourful characters along their journey, Police officer Ram Dass; Pathan servants Safaraz and Ser Ali; Indian Army officer Miraj Khan and enemy agents Sutcliffe and Snaith amongst others add spice to the plot.

I would recommend The Pass Beyond Kashmir to anyone who enjoys rip-roaring thriller novels. If you want to experience something a little bit different in terms of characters and locales you cannot go wrong and shuold give this a try. Berkely Mather has fallen out of favour over the years, but if this is the type of book I can expect more of, I will be keeping him in mind the next time I am browsing for the next read.

I purchased my copy of the eBook from Amazon UK, it cost £6.19. There aren't many Mather books out there in this format though, which is a shame.