[1] The novel is set in the fictional princely state of Kandahar, modeled on Kashmir, at the time of the Partition of India in 1947.

While the debate about whether the state will join either India or Pakistan after partition is still on-going, hill tribes begin a campaign of plunder and rapine.

A reviewer in the News (Adelaide) noted: "The end of an era is portrayed in Moorehead's description of the plight of the uprooted British, whose long-established world of privilege has suddenly collapsed...Weaknesses in the novel lie in some of the characterizations, and particularly in the minor but central story of the redemption of the neurotic hero.

There are almost unbearably tense passages in The Rage of the Vulture, which lift war's horror and terror right into the environment of the reader.

While its romantic interest may loiter and sail serenely into tributaries, rebellion and murder rush the main stream of the story headlong into tautness and fear...The Rage of the Vulture is the kind of book one picks up and reads straight through to its end.