Matthew Hervey

It's 1814, and Napoleon is hard-pressed to defend France from a combination of Russia, Prussia, Austria, and Britain. Nor is he the only one in a quandary. Matthew Hervey, a young British cornet, is in a rather unusual situation. As far as he knows, it's highly irregular to be arrested on a battlefield after a successful action. Still, it's hardly the first time politics has interrupted war, and as Hervey's career progresses, he increasingly balances both, sometimes more successfully than others!

Fresh from Waterloo, Matthew Hervey, aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, leaves the scene of his triumph to travel to India. Chintal's Hervey's destination, and his mission's to glean intelligence for the Duke, who expects to become Governor-General of India. Chintal's under threat from Northern renegades, not to mention the neighbouring Nizam of Haidarabad, whose powerful and ferocious force of artillery is known all over India as the Nizam's Daughters. Hervey becomes embroiled in another heated debacle, but this time without the help of his dragoons. It's up to him alone to decide where in the coming conflict his loyalties will lie.

Following his best-selling title, The Nizam's daughters, this is Mallinson's third novel in the acclaimed series combining accurate historical details, breath taking battles, and an involving plot. It is 1817, and Captain Matthew Hervey has returned from his bloody battles in India to find England in political and economic disorder. The lack of a professional constabulary means the task of policing as become attributed to the army, and particularly the cavalry. Despite the chaos surrounding him, Hervey develops a passionate relationship with Lady Henrietta Lindsey. This results in a marriage that will alter his life and future dramatically. During battle a new commanding officer develops a deep hatred for him and withholds a dark secret. Tension amounts as their futures are about to collide, and the consequences will be devastating.

It's 1819 and the last two years have been tough for Matthew Hervey - his beloved wife is dead and he turned his back on the cavalry regiment. Hervey travels to Rome with his sister and meets one of England's most controversial figures who reminds him of why he joined the Light Dragoons. He rejoins, and is assigned a new troop and horses. They must travel to India and advance through the jungle - unaware that a large number of Burmese warboats are awaiting their arrival...

1824, the Sixth Light Dragoons are still stationed in India, and the talk in the officers' mess is of war. The Burmese are increasingly challenging the Company's dominion, and skirmishes are becoming common on India's borders. A blaze looks set to flare, taking the surrounding provinces with it. With the threat of war on two fronts, British troops must intervene.

All looks set fair for Major Matthew Hervey: news of a handsome legacy should allow him to purchase command of his beloved regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons. He is resolved to marry, and, rather to his surprise, the object of his affections - the widow of the late Sir Ivo Lankester - has readily consented. But he has reckoned without the opportunism of a fellow officer with ready cash to hand....

1827: Captain Sir Laughton Peto, recently engaged to Matthew Hervey's sister, Elizabeth, has just taken command of HMS Prince Rupert. But his passage to the Ionian Sea - where Admiral Codrington is assembling an Anglo-Russian-French fleet to evict the Turks from Greek waters - will not be smooth sailing. First he must exercise his crew. He has also been entrusted with the safe passage to Malta of the Admiral's youngest daughter. Six months on, Matthew Hervey is in London recovering from another bout of malaria and the wound from his battle with the Zulu. All is set fair for his marriage to Lady Lankester but trouble lies ahead as family commitments clash with affairs of the heart...

1828: Matthew Hervey of the Sixth Light Dragoons has been urgently recalled to South Africa. The stability of the Cape Colony has been threatened by Xhosa tribesman who have been making incursions across the borders. When Hervey is told by his old friend, Sir Eyre Somervile, that the Zulu warrior king, Shaka, is about to make war on neighbouring tribes, he knows that matters are perilous indeed. Leaving his new wife and young daughter in England, Hervey speeds to his friend's aid. He and Somervile journey to meet the Zulu king, but Shaka's royal kraal is a horrifying place. The sentinels at the gates are corpses, and it is soon apparent that Shaka has slaughtered thousands of his own people. Into this febrile atmosphere ride Hervey, Somervile and their escort of dragoons and mounted rifles. But the sudden death of the Zulu king plunges the region into civil war, with Hervey and his men into terrible danger. Yet worse is to come. Separated from his troop, Hervey must lead Shaka's queen across a hostile and perilous land where sanctuary has never seemed further away.

January 1829: Cuts in the army mean that Matthew Hervey's Dragoons are to be reduced to a single squadron. With his long-term plans in disarray, Hervey undertakes a six-month assignment as an observer with the Russian army. Soon Hervey and his faithful groom, Private Johnson, are sailing north to St Petersburg, and on to the Eastern Balkans, seat of the ferocious war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire. For Hervey, the stakes have never been higher - or more personal.

The Prime Minister is resisting growing calls for parliamentary reform, provoking scenes of violent unrest. Against this inflammable backdrop Lieutenant-Colonel Matthew Hervey, recently returned from an assignment in the Balkans, takes command of his regiment, the 6th Light Dragoons. His fears that things might be dull are quickly dispelled by the business of vexatious officers, difficult choices over which NCOs to promote, not to mention the incendiarists on the doorstep of the King himself.