Australian author Guy Boothby put his wanderlust to work as fodder for his fiction. Though his first publication was a non-fiction account of a trip through his native country, he soon turned to fiction as an outlet for his creativity, focusing primarily on action-adventure, mystery, and detection tales. In Strange Company: A Story of Chili and the Southern Seas, Boothby's first novel, was an instant success and will satisfy contemporary readers looking for a well-plotted action-adventure story.