The Foreign Legion Novels Part B contains the novels Paper Prison, published in 1939, and The Uniform of Glory, published in 1941. Paper Prison is the story of twin fraternal brothers, Mark and Luke Tuyler, and the woman whom they love, Rosanne. Paper Prison is a complex novel, published (and assumed to be written) in the later part of Wren's life. It is more realistic than most of his more famous novels, with its themes of infidelity, divorce, blackmail, and "killing no murder." The Uniform of Glory is a humorous novel which has the subtitle of "being the true story of a free Frenchman's night out." It is the story of Denis Ducros, a legionnaire who is the servant of the Colonel, Louis Rochefort. On the night of a Legion f te day, Denis dons the uniform of the Colonel and cleverly impersonates him out on the town. Denis has a number of adventures pretending to be the Colonel, including giving non-commissioned officers a dreadful time, giving ordinary legionnaires an enjoyable time, helping the Colonel's daughter with her romance, and helping a number of "filles de joie" to escape their environment for the evening.
The Later India Novels Part A contains two novels, Beggars' Horses, published in America in 1943, after Wren's death, as The Dark Woman, and Explosion which never saw an American publication. Beggars' Horses is the story of six British army officers who have a confrontation with an Indian fakir or Holy Man. The six officers are asked what they would "wish" for. One asks for great strength, the others ask to be healthy, to live a long life, for happiness, for great wealth, and for great courage. The rest of the story is how the six men obtain their wishes and how "a dark woman" interacts with them. Explosion deals with a plot by Indian agitators to use a large bomb to kill British officials and destroy several buildings: a literal explosion. The main characters are Anthony Steele, the Superintendent of Police, and Betty Gopaldas, an young English woman married to an Indian, who is one of the group of agitators planning the explosion. With Betty, being infatuated with Steele, he is able to persuade her to help him uncover the bomb plot. There are minor plots about British society in an Indian city during the British Raj, and Wren is able to convey the thoughts and feelings of a strong Imperialist in favor of British rule.
The Later India Novels Part B contains two novels, The Man of a Ghost and Worth Wile; the story of Richard Wendover. The novels are typical adventure novels of the "Northwest Frontier" of British India, which were very popular in the early twentieth century in both book and film productions. The Man of a Ghost starts out in East Africa during World War I where Wendover is given a court-martial and a dishonorable discharge when he is found on duty in an apparent drunken state. Wendover and his friend, the Pathan, Shere Khan, wander over Africa and Central Asia, until finally Wendover and Shere Khan are able to prove Wendover was drugged by the medical officer. Worth Wile starts with the story of a military airplane raid that crashes in the mountains. The young airman, John Vere-Vaughan, survives the crash and is taken prisoner by the Pathans and is used in a plot to capture a British outpost. The novel continues with a flashback and introduces, Wendover's best friend, Sybil Ffoulkes, who is in love with him. Prince (and Commissar) Bailitzin who was a rival for Sybil's hand becomes a Russian secret service agent and is involved in capturing and torturing Wendover as a British secret service agent. After escaping, Wendover saves Vere-Vaughan after he is reinstated and reunited with Sybil. But soon a tragic series of events occur where Wendover has to break Shere Khan out jail, and has to flee back to the mountains.
The English Novels Part A contains two novels, Bubble Reputation and Cardboard Castle, that are set in the English countryside in large country manor houses. Bubble Reputation is the story of Sir Giles Cortenay (known as Bump), the last descendant of an old English family. Due to difficult economic circumstances, Bump has turned the family manor into a country hotel. The main plot is about the mystery of the murder of Bump's granduncle and the search for a great hoard of jewels hidden on the estate by Bump's buccaneer ancestor. The second novel, Cardboard Castle, is the story of Henry Waring, and a teenager, Anthony Calderton, who is the son of Lord and Lady Calderton, and considered "different", and who remains at home when his parents leave to govern a British colony. When Lady Calderton is taken ill, however, she comes home to recuperate and this is when the villain, Captain Bertie-Norton, appears. This so-called "old friend" of Lady Calderton is actually her first husband, who everybody thought had died twenty years ago. He now wants Lady Calderton to provide his upkeep and living since he wants to "settle down" after his adventuring throughout the world. He wants to do this without anybody knowing who he really is. The rest of the book is about how Lady Calderton and Henry Waring, deal with Bertie-Norton and his demands, and how Henry deals with the teenager who is "mad" about the English Civil War.
Volume Six of The Collected Novels of P. C. Wren, The English Novels, contains four novels with a different setting than that of his other novels. The action takes place almost entirely in England, which is why the title of this omnibus edition is the English novels. Part B contains two novels, The Mammon of Righteousness (1930) and Two Feet From Heaven (1940), that are the most psychological, versus action and adventure, of all of Wren's novels. The Mammon of Righteousness is the story of Algernon Coxe, a neurotic young man heavily under the influence of his over-domineering mother, Miranda. He meets and falls in love with a young woman, Giovanna Blayton, of whom his mother disapproves. Algernon's mother persuades him to marry another young woman, but before he does, Giovanna asks him to look after a large traveling trunk or box while she goes away for a while. He does so, but his wife shortly discovers the dead body of Giovanna in the box and Algernon is arrested for Giovanna's murder. The second novel, Two Feet From Heaven, is the story of a vicar, Richard Neystoke, of a small village in the country, and his mental illness. Wren described the story as "quire a new departure, and more of an orthodox novel than a 'rattling good yarn', as the lowest form of review calls the story of action and romantic adventure. . . . The book is, of course, mainly a pathological study, and the 'hero' an abnormal neurotic and something of a Jekyll-and-Hyde. His character on the whole, is admirable, but infirm of purpose and with a weak and cowardly streak. Like all my characters, he is drawn from life. . . . He is, however the victim of an equally fundamental weakness of character-unstable temperament and an injurious mother complex."
