Strange Escapes

Most thrilling of all adventures are those born of desperate flight-the single moment when a man stakes everything on a chance and runs for his life. In Strange Escapes, H. Bedford¿Jones, one of the pulps' most prolific storytellers, puts that moment at the center of eight gripping tales reprinted from the magazines that made him famous. Here are prison breaks that read like heartbeats-from the famed flight of Porfirio Díaz to the horrors and heroics of a Civil War lockup-and a gallery of men and women who snatch freedom from the jaws of doom by wit, courage, or sheer blind luck. Fast, theatrical, and unrelenting, these historical dramas recall the pulp era at its most cinematic: tense set pieces, sudden reversals, and escapes that linger long after the last page.