'Right from page one you know you are in the hands of a talented storyteller... An exciting tale of espionage and adventure in the classic mould.'
~ R.N. Morris, author of The Gentle Axe
1808.
Captain Will Fraser has just returned from the Front in the Peninsular War. He is disgraced and penniless, the victim of a conspiracy led by a jealous and influential officer. Fraser has been falsely accused of insubordination and cowardice and dismissed from his regiment.
Fraser and Duncan Armstrong, his wounded Sergeant, arrive in London to seek out Will’s brother, Jack, who works for King George’s Government.
But Jack has disappeared. He vanished from his lodgings a week ago and no one has seen him since. Friends and colleagues are baffled by his disappearance as is the young woman, Clara, who claims to be his wife.
Then Will is viciously attacked, seemingly mistaken for his brother, and only just escapes with his life. When news of this reaches Jack’s colleagues in Government, Will is recruited to find his brother and he and Armstrong set out to follow a trail littered with half-truths and misinformation.
For their task is not quite what it seems.
Will closely resembles his brother and it becomes evident that he is being used as a decoy to flush out Jack’s enemies. These are enemies of the State, for Jack Fraser is a spy and his colleagues believe he has uncovered evidence which will lead to the identity of a French spymaster embedded in the British Government.
Will’s search leads him to France but in this murky world of espionage, nothing is straightforward.
The soldier turned spy must unmask a traitor, before it's too late.
Rosemary Hayes has written over forty books across different genres, from historical fiction to chapter books for early readers and texts for picture books.
Who is Captain Will Fraser?
by Rosemary Hayes
Captain Will Fraser is the main character in Traitor’s Game, the first of three novellas set at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, and we follow his progress from being an officer sent back in disgrace from fighting in the Peninsular Wars, through to becoming a spy for the British Government.
In this first story we don’t learn much about the circumstances of his dismissal from his regiment; details of this come out in a later book, but I am careful not to say that he was cashiered.
It was extremely rare for an officer to be cashiered from the military in the 19th century and would only happen following imprisonment and a trial. If found guilty, he could be publicly humiliated which could involve a parade-ground ceremony in front of assembled troops with the destruction of his symbols of status. His epaulettes would be ripped off his shoulders, his badges and insignia stripped, his sword broken, his cap knocked away and his medals torn off and dashed to the ground. It also meant that the amount he had paid for his commission was lost, as he could not sell it on.
Will is a complex character. He’s not from the stable of well-bred officers in whose company he finds himself in the army. He is the son of a tenant farmer, and he is more comfortable in the company of men of lower rank. It had always been Will’s dream to join the army and serve his country, and it had been a real struggle for his father to find the money to buy his commission. However, Will had soon proved his worth. He had excelled as a leader, fought bravely, and been popular with the men under him.
But his fellow officers had not been so accepting, particularly one – a young man from an influential family, riven with jealousy, not only of Will’s ability but also of his success with women. Will’s liaison with the object of the young officer’s affections only served to twist the knife. The jealous young man had bided his time, then seized an opportunity to falsely accuse Will of cowardice and insubordination and trick him into fighting an (illegal) dual, witnessed and reported by others.
Desperate to clear his name, Will returns, penniless, to London, and seeks out his brother, Jack, to ask for help, only to find that Jack has vanished. In Will’s efforts to find Jack, he encounters a variety of shadowy figures and his search leads him along false trails and into the clutches of criminals and double agents.
Too late, he realises that he is being used as a puppet by a spymaster to run Jack to earth – and that Jack is himself a spy and has damning evidence about a double agent at the heart of the British Government.
In a terrifying voyage across the Channel to France, accompanied by his friend and wounded Sergeant, Duncan Armstrong, Will is in a race against time.
Can he find his brother before more secrets are passed to the enemy and a murder is committed?
This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.
Rosemary Hayes
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