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Combining the vivid detail of a master historian with the engaging characters and pulsating action of a natural storyteller, the first volume in a series set during the Napoleonic Wars

The year is 1808, and Hamish Williams is a "gentlemen volunteer" in the 106th regiment of foot, a man serving with the ranks but living with the officers, and uncomfortable in both worlds: looked down on by those with the money or influence to buy their rank, and distrusted by the common soldiers who know he is not one of them. But Williams is determined to prove by deeds alone that he is a man worthy of advancement, and when the 106th embarks for Portugal to begin what will become known as the Peninsula War against Napoleon, he knows his chance of glory is at hand. Soon he is receiving a sharp lesson in the realities of war, as the 106th undergoes a bloody baptism at the hands of the French—and he realizes that his single-minded devotion to honor may not, after all, be the quickest route to promotion.