Stryker
8 total works
Late Summer, 1644. The King's cause in the north has been shattered and the pivotal city of York has fallen. Parliamentarian eyes now look to his remaining territory in the south in a push for total victory.
But for Major Stryker, captured amid the bloody carnage of Marston Moor, the war appears to be at an end. Confined within the dank hell of London's Clink Prison, where the stinking floodwaters of the Thames are as deadly as his gaolers, his future is bleak. At the mercy of crazed inmates, murderous soldiers and a sadistic governor, this is a new world of savagery, disease and squalor, where all Stryker's military expertise counts for nothing, and matters take a turn for the worse when an old foe discovers his whereabouts.
With enemies on all sides, Stryker faces death at any moment. But he knows he must fight for freedom at all costs, for beyond the Clink's high walls there remains a spy to be hunted, a lover to be found and a war to win.
Warlord's Gold, the fifth novel in The Civil War Chronicles, Michael Arnold's acclaimed series of historical thrillers, sees battle-scarred hero, Captain Stryker, 'the Sharpe of the Civil War' on a quest to recover lost treasure.
Autumn,1643. As an increasingly bitter war rages across England, Captain Innocent Stryker leaves Oxford with orders to recover a lost treasure, vital to the success of the Royalist cause. But a seemingly simple mission to the remote Scilly Isles is soon jeopardised, for enemies lie in wait. A formidable Parliamentarian agent has been sent ahead of Stryker's force, intent on defeating Royalist plans. Feared by ally and enemy alike, he is a man whose determination is only matched by his hatred for Stryker.
The quest for the gold takes Stryker across storm-ravaged seas, through enemy territory and finally to the Royalist stronghold of Basing House. And it is there that Stryker will face his most dangerous challenge yet.
Devil's Charge, the second in The Civil War Chronicles, Michael Arnold's acclaimed series of historical thrillers, sees battle-scarred hero Captain Stryker, 'the Sharpe of the Civil War', fight for his honour. 'Stands in comparison with the best of Cornwell' Yorkshire Post
England stands divided: king against Parliament, town against country, brother against brother.
For Captain Stryker, scarred hero of a dozen wars, the rights and wrongs of the cause mean little. His loyalties are to his own small band of comrades - and to Queen Henrietta Maria's beautiful and most deadly agent, Lisette Gaillard. So when Prince Rupert entrusts him with a secret mission to discover what has happened to Lisette and the man she was protecting - a man who could hold the key to Royalist victory - nothing, not false imprisonment for murder, ambush, a doomed siege or a lethal religious fanatic will stand in his way.
A Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of the Year
Traitor's Blood, the first in The Civil War Chronicles, Michael Arnold's acclaimed series of historical thrillers, sees battle-scarred hero Captain Stryker, 'the Sharpe of the Civil War', confront his nemesis.
'Stands in comparison with the best of Cornwell' Yorkshire Post
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 . . .
The Sixth in The Civil War Chronicles featuring Major Stryker - 'the Sharpe of the Civil War'
FIVE ARMIES
FORTY-SIX THOUSAND MEN
ONE CROWN
THE BIGGEST BATTLE OF THE AGE
2 July 1644. Five armies converge outside York. It will be a battle for honour, glory, and the fate of three kingdoms. And it will pit two great leaders - Oliver Cromwell and Prince Rupert - directly against one another for the first time. It is a day that will change the course of history.
Into the cannon fire and musket smoke marches Major Innocent Stryker, battle-scarred hero of the Royalist cause. He must not only lead his men through the bloody horror and outwit his Parliamentary enemies, but uncover foul treachery on his own side. He will need every shred of experience and determination to survive.
Marston Moor will be the decisive turning point in the British Civil Wars.
This is the thrilling and shocking story of that battle.
Hunter's Rage, the third in The Civil War Chronicles, Michael Arnold's acclaimed series of historical thrillers, sees battle-scarred hero Captain Stryker, 'the Sharpe of the Civil War', take on his oldest foe.
'Stands in comparison with the best of Cornwell' Yorkshire Post
Posted to the hostile territory of Dartmoor, Captain Innocent Stryker and his men are attacked by an elite cavalry unit commanded by the formidable Colonel Gabriel Wild and suffer heavy losses. Stryker has already clashed once with Wild, and the Roundhead has sworn to seek his revenge. After the attack, Stryker is faced with the annihilation of his company as he is hounded across the moor, eventually seeking shelter on an isolated tor populared by an enigmatic former priest who harbours no love for the King's cause. Colonel Wild is assisted in his revenge by Osmyn Hogg, Parliamentarian Witchfinder, who shares his own deadly history with Stryker. To save his honour and his life, Stryker must lead his men to glory from the protection of the lonely granite-topped hill. Into this atmosphere of intrigue and danger comes the beautiful but mysterious Cecily Cade. Stryker comes to her aid, unaware that she carries with her special knowledge that may prove the key to Royalist victory.
The battle between Stryker and his old foes takes him from the bleak isolation of Dartmoor, through the war-ravaged lands of southern England and finally to Stratton, where the bloody battle between Cornwall and Devon will decide the fate of the south-west.
Assassin's Reign, the fourth in The Civil War Chronicles, Michael Arnold's acclaimed series of historical thrillers, sees battle-scarred hero Captain Stryker, 'the Sharpe of the Civil War', in the fight of his life.
'Stands in comparison with the best of Cornwell' Yorkshire Post
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. Its walls are weak, its garrison under strength, and its governor - Sir Edward Massie - suspected of harbouring sympathy for the King.
Stryker and his men are with the army as it converges on Gloucester, still reeling from the loss of a close friend at the bloody Battle of Stratton. Ordered to infiltrate the rebel city on a mission to discover whether Massie will indeed surrender, Stryker reluctantly embarks upon his most desperate mission yet. But Gloucester's defenders are more resolute than any had imagined, and catastrophe soon befalls him. 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.
It is the autumn of 1630, and Innocent Stryker has completed his first year as a soldier. But life as part of a regiment of mercenaries is hard and cruel, while the brutal war destroying mainland Europe has shown him horrors he never thought possible. Stryker has few allies, and much to prove.
When his company are assigned an apparently simple task - collect a spy at a remote ford and bring him safely back to his Swedish masters - Stryker seizes the opportunity to distinguish himself.
But unbeknown to the mercenaries, their enemies in the Catholic League are already aware of the spy. They have enlisted the help of Sweden's old rivals, the Poland-Lithuania Commonwealth and, as Stryker's mission goes bloodily awry, his company are shattered by the most fearsome cavalrymen on the continent; the winged husaria of Poland.
In the terrors that follow, Stryker must make his choice. He must run, or he must stand and fight.