The author of the acclaimed Empire of the Moghul novels returns to eighteenth-century India in this series debut of daring adventure and imperial plunder.

Scotland, 1744. An avid student of classical literature, young Nicholas Ballantyne’s life is turned upside down when his uncle, the Laird of Glenmire, dispatches him to India. Nicholas is told that this sudden journey is necessary for his own safety, and that once arrived, he is to join the East India Company.

After decades of struggle, the Company is ready to expand. Nicholas and his new colleague, the mercurial Robert Clive, rise quickly within the Company’s ranks, masterminding plans to counter French designs in India. But the fight for India will only be resolved in battle. On the fields of Plassey, the two armies draw up for a climactic encounter. For Robert and Nicholas, commanding the Company’s forces, this will be their making, or their end . . .

Alex Rutherford