2011-
Published July 2013
Summer, 1643. The forces of King Charles are victorious; their Parliamentarian enemies in deep crisis. In the west, the crucial port city of Bristol has fallen, and Royalist eyes fall quickly upon neighbouring Gloucester. Stryker and his men march with them.
Still reeling from the bloody Battle of Stratton, Stryker is ordered to infiltrate the city. Its walls are weak, its garrison under strength and its governor, Sir Edward Massie, is believed to be sympathetic to the King. But Gloucester’s defenders are more resolute than any had imagined, and catastrophe soon befalls them. With his life seemingly forfeit, Stryker is spared by an unlikely saviour; Vincent Skaithlocke, his former commander. The mercenary has returned to England to fight for Parliament and offers Stryker his protection. As old friends adjust to life fighting for opposing sides, Stryker begins to question his own loyalties… but a chance discovery makes him realise that all in Gloucester is not what it seems, for a hidden menace threatens his own life, and that of King Charles himself.
