Showing results for "Colin Mace" in Historical Fiction

England, 1346: For Thomas Blackstone the choice is easy – dance on the end of a rope for a murder he did not commit, or take up his war bow and join the king's invasion. As he fights his way across northern France, Blackstone learns the brutal lessons of war – from the terror and confusion of his first taste of combat, to the savage realities of siege warfare. Vastly outnumbered, Edward III's army will finally confront the armoured might of the French nobility on the field of Crécy.

The French capital is at war with itself. Informers, gangsters, collaborators and Resistance factions are as ready to slit each other's throats as they are the Germans'. The occupiers are no better: the Gestapo and Abwehr – military intelligence – are locked in their own lethal battle for dominance. Mitchell knows the risks but he has a reason to put his life on the line: his family are still in Paris and have fallen into the hands of the Gestapo. With disaster afflicting his mission from the outset, it will take all his ingenuity to even get into the capital...

25 BC. Titus Cervianus is no ordinary soldier. A former surgeon from the city of Ancyra, he's now a capsarius—a combat medic. Cervianus is a pragmatist, a scientist and truly unpopular with his legion. The Twenty Second Deiotariana have been sent to deal with uprisings and chaos in Egypt. Yet the Twenty Second is no ordinary legion either. Founded as the private royal army of one of Rome's most devoted allies, the king of Galatia, their ways are not the same as the other legions, a factor that sets them apart and causes friction with their fellow soldiers.

London, 1969: The Kray twins, the nemeses of Charles Holborne, barrister, are finally convicted of multiple murders and sent away for the longest prison terms ever imposed by a British court. But with London in the grip of a housing crisis and unscrupulous landlords hiking rents, there are new ruthless enforcers terrorizing destitute East Enders. When a tenant dies during a violent altercation with bailiffs, Charles is instructed to represent the businessmen charged with conspiracy to murder.

Amidst the Hundred Years' War, alliances must be brokered. The Duke of Clarence, second son of King Edward III, journeys from Paris to marry the daughter of the powerful Lord of Milan. Little does he know that he is heading into a trap. Luckily the Duke is preceded on the road to Milan by Sir Thomas Blackstone, Master of War, on an urgent mission of his own. Blackstone must get his hands on the gold the Prince of Wales needs to wage successful war in France. But there is a price on Blackstone's head, and assassins willing to risk everything to claim it before he even gets to Milan.

Bordeaux, 1367. Having angered the bloodthirsty Don Pedro, King of Castile, Sir Thomas Blackstone is thoroughly sick of his mission for the Prince of Wales, but must remain true to his oath. But this is the Hundred Years' War, and tensions are rising once more. With the Prince of Wales deeply unpopular in his Aquitainian lands, Blackstone, King Edward's Master of War, must return to French soil to help stem the tide of support for the King of France. Meanwhile, Henry, Blackstone's son, faces an incognito ride across France with his own motley band of outlaws and mercenaries.

On the face of it, representing a widow in an accidental death case should be routine. Sergeant Maynard, a Royal Air Force policeman, died in a simple motorcycle accident. The problem is, Mrs Maynard insists her husband was murdered. Sceptical at first, Charles realises she could be right; something much more frightening is happening at the airbase.

Provoked by the Dauphin's refusal to honour the terms of his father's surrender, Edward III has invaded France with the greatest army England has ever assembled. But the English lion's attempts to claw the French crown from its master are futile. After defeats at Crècy and Poitiers, the Dauphin will no longer meet the English in the field. Mired down in costly sieges and facing a stalemate, Edward's great army is forced to argee a treaty. But peace comes at a price.

Charles Holborne, maverick barrister, will never fit in at the bar—too working-class, too Jewish, and too dangerous—all of which makes him the perfect outsider to prosecute a murder case which will rock British justice to its foundations.

Winter, 1364. Sir Thomas Blackstone, Edward III's Master of War, has travelled to France to secure Brittany for England. In the throes of battle, he rescues a Castilian boy, Lazaro, who just witnessed the murder of the young queen. It is suspected that the king - along with Velasquita Alcon de Lugo, the beautiful witch who serves him - assassinated his queen. But Lazaro knows that is not the case. With the king in hiding and the French army advancing Castile is on its knees. So Blackstone is ordered to Castile, to defend England's ally from the French.

Tuscany, 1358: Thomas Blackstone has built a formidable reputation in exile, fighting as a mercenary amid the ceaseless internecine warring of Italy's City States. But success has bred many enemies, and when a dying man delivers a message recalling him to England, it seems almost certain to be a trap. Yet Blackstone cannot disobey – the summons is at the Queen's demand. On his journey, Blackstone will brave the terrors of the High Alps in winter, face the Black Prince in tournament, confront the bloody anarchy of a popular revolt and submit to trial by combat.

The search for his missing son takes Joseph Radcliffe from the streets of Dublin, smouldering with rebellion, to the trackless veld of South Africa and the bloody brutality of the Anglo-Boer War. As a former cavalryman in the US army, Radcliffe is no stranger to war, but 800 miles north of Cape Town, under fire from Boer commandos and distrusted by the British forces, he will find his survival skills tested to the hilt. The Last Horseman is an epic tale of heroism and treachery, love and loyalty, set against the backdrop of a conflict that shook an empire to its core.

Ten years ago, the greatest army in Christendom was slaughtered at Crécy. Archer Thomas Blackstone stood his ground and left that squalid field a knight. He has since carved out a small fiefdom in northern France, but the wounds of war still bleed and a traitor has given the King of France the means to destroy the English knight and his family. As the traitor's net tightens, so the French King's army draws in.

Psychopathic gangster Ronnie Kray has a “list” of persons who have “taken liberties” and who are to be disposed of, and now barrister Charles Holborne finds his name at the top of the list. He can’t spend his life looking over his shoulder, but how to take the fight to the two most violent gangsters in London?

Winter, 1361. After two decades of conflict, Edward III has finally agreed a treaty with the captive French King, John II. In return for his freedom, John has ceded vast tracts of territory to the English. But for five long years mercenary bands and belligerent lords have fought over the carcass of his kingdom. They will not give up their hard-won spoils to honour a defeated king's promises. If the English want their prize, they'll have to fight for it... Thomas Blackstone will have to fight for it.

Another high-profile case forces maverick barrister Charles Holborne into the orbit of the Kray twins, the men who refuse to stay in his past and still have the power to destroy him. Will Ronnie Kray’s mental illness finally bring the Firm crashing down? And how are a disgraced Church of England priest, an ex-stripper, and a dead man connected? Charles Holborne must once again cross the most dangerous men in London in his quest for the truth.

Operation Anglo, 31 August 1942. Beneath the waves, HMS Traveller closes in on the coast of Rhodes in the Eastern Mediterranean. Aboard, eight SBS commandos check their weapons and munitions as they prepare to infiltrate and sabotage two Axis bomber fields. That part of their mission will be a success... but only two of the eight commandos will make it back to the submarine. Ex-Black Watch Sgt Jim Hunter will be one of the lucky ones, but what he will face next will make Operation Anglo look like a cakewalk.

Egypt, 25 BC. Titus Cervianus marches into the unknown as he and the Twenty Second Legion contend with the armies of the Bellatrix: the Warrior Queen of Kush. The Kushites and the Egyptians are united against the Roman presence in their lands—but there are complex political and military forces at work. Deep in the deserts, Cervianus and his comrades must brace themselves for a furious onslaught as they take on the might of the Bellatrix.

Charles Holborne has cemented his reputation as a respected murder trial lawyer, who is near unbeatable in the courtroom. But he is still on the radar of the notorious Kray Twins and before long he finds himself drawn into one of their darker scandals.

Behind every myth there is a spark of truth.... There's nothing special about Ben Garston. Or so he'd have you believe. He won't tell you, for instance, that he's also known as Red Ben. Or that the world of myth and legend is more real than you think. Because it's his job to keep all that a secret. But now a centuries-old rivalry has resurfaced, and the delicate balance between his world and ours is about to be shattered.