James Ogilvie
9 primary works
Book 1
Book 2
Book 3
Book 4
Book 5
Book 6
Book 7
Book 8
Book 9
Francis Fettleworth, divisional commander at Peshawar, knows only too well what a brittle thing the Pax Britannica has become on the Northwest Frontier, where his garrison is the last outpost of the Raj facing the Khyber Pass and the rugged Afghan hills. And trouble is brewing on an unprecedented scale among the Pathan warriors in that region. But if an officer could infiltrate their ranks, these dangers might be averted ...Being a spy is something James Ogilvie hasn't tried before. Disguised as an arms dealer he sets out across the Indus to talk his way into the confidence of the Pathan leaders and their fanatical holy men, the sadhu. Can he survive in this alien environment, a stranger to everything - and everyone - he holds dear? If he can't, the whole future of the British Raj may well be at risk ...
A successful tribal uprising in the foothills of the Hindu Kush could bode ill for the authority of the Raj. When the 114th Queen's Own Royal Strathspeys march to Kalundabad, it is Captain James Ogilvie's unenviable charge to keep an eye on things.
Captain James Ogilvie of the 114th Queen's Own Royal Strathspeys might have been pardoned for expecting the cares of the Raj to remain in India while he finished a well-earned home leave in London. But a summons from the War Office brings the problems of security on the North-West frontier surging back. A lance-duffardar of the Kohat Light Horse is to appear before the Bow Street magistrate, but the charge is blatantly false, and Ogilvie sets out to learn who is behind it. His investigations lead him to the accused man's squadron commander, one Captain Soames, a cavalry officer with more expensive tastes than his army pay allows, who seeks to supplement it by liaison with the most notorious frontier bandit of them all - the dreaded Wolf of the Salt Range. Back in India, it is Ogilvie's distasteful duty to act as agent provocateur and lure Soames into showing his hand. But the passes into the Punjab are no place for straightforward flag-showing soldiering and when there are traitors in the camp the hazards are formidably magnified.
Britain's Raj seems to totter on the brink of disaster. Invasion threatens from the north, a rebellious southern princeling plots insurrection in a distant province, and Ogilvie's regiment is called to the rescue. Battling a horde of rebels against overwhelming odds, the young Captain must protect his men from the mad egotism of a temporary commander - and he must also avert a sudden and catastrophic end to his own military career.