Traitor's Blood

Once seen in the heat of battle, Captain Stryker is never forgotten. A hardened veteran of the wars in the Low Countries, he has come home to England to seek revenge on the man who left him for dead and scarred him for life.

Stryker is driven by loyalty rather than conviction to serve King Charles's cause. He has no truck with aristocracy, preferring the company of a handful of trusted men, including sometime actor Lancelot Forreseter and his foul-mouthed sergeant, Skellen. But when the existence of a dangerous spy at the heart of the Royalist establishment is discovered, it is Stryker whom Prince Rupert chooses to capture the man before he realises the game is up.

Lightly armed and with only a handful of men, Stryker must journey across a country riven by bitterness and beset by marauding bands of soldiers in a race against time. But unbeknown to Stryker, someone else is also closing in on his quarry, someone whom Stryker has sworn to kill: Captain Eli Makepeace, his nemesis, the man who nearly destroyed him . . .

“'You can smell the gunpowder and hear the cannon fire . . . Arnold's passion for the period suffuses every page'”

Captures the grittiness, as well as the doomed glamour, of the Royalist cause - Charles Spencer

You can smell the gunpowder and hear the cannon fire . . . Arnold's passion for the period suffuses every page - Robyn Young, author of the Brethren trilogy

Powerfully visualised battle scenes which can certainly stand in comparison with the best of Cornwell - Yorkshire Post

I loved Sharpe. I am going to be equally at home with Captain Stryker - Historical Novels Review

An intensely interesting, plot-driven historical novel of superb quality . . . I found it very difficult to put down until the final page - Euro Crime

A fast-moving, exciting novel . . . Forget Sharpe and enjoy the exploits of Captain Stryker in an earlier and dangerous period of history. Once hooked you will look forward to the next in this series - Ryedale Gazette and Herald

"Michael Arnold has caught all of the passion, urgency, fear and exhilaration of men in battle. Not only that, he's writing in a period that he obviously knows intimately and in to which he has breathed new life.' - Patrick Mercer, author of To Do & Die, Dust & Steel, Red Runs the Helmand

Mike Arnold hooks the reader with the clash of steel and the roar of gunpowder. Rollicking action and proper history combine in this cracking series. - Anthony Riches

Michael Arnold lives in Hampshire with his wife and young son. His childhood holidays were spent visiting castles and battlefields, but his fascination with the civil wars was piqued partly by the fact that his hometown and region of Hampshire are steeped in civil war history.

Once seen in the heat of battle, Captain Stryker is never forgotten. A hardened veteran of the wars in the Low Countries, he has come home to England to seek revenge on the man who left him for dead and scarred him for life.Stryker is driven by loyalty rather than conviction to serve King Charles's cause. He has no truck with aristocracy, preferring the company of a handful of trusted men, including sometime actor Lancelot Forreseter and his foul-mouthed sergeant, Skellen. But when the existence of a dangerous spy at the heart of the Royalist establishment is discovered, it is Stryker whom Prince Rupert chooses to capture the man before he realises the game is up.Lightly armed and with only a handful of men, Stryker must journey across a country riven by bitterness and beset by marauding bands of soldiers in a race against time. But unbeknown to Stryker, someone else is also closing in on his quarry, someone whom Stryker has sworn to kill: Captain Eli Makepeace, his nemesis, the man who nearly destroyed him . . .

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