In twenty years the de Hauteville brothers have gone from penniless obscurity to become the most potent warrior family in Christendom: depended on by the Pope, feared by Byzantium and respected by the Holy Roman Emperor. And now Roger, the youngest son, has finally come to Italy and proves himself also to be a great warrior and canny politician. The path is not easy, there are enemies at Roger?s back as well as before him, treacheries both secret and transparent to circumvent. Yet the loyalty of blood that binds this family of warriors together is still present and it is that, above everything, which will be the catalyst that propels the name de Hauteville to the pinnacle of power, as they undertake, with papal blessing, the first true crusade of the 11th century.

The Hundred Years' War is over and newly-knighted Sir John Hawkwood is headed for France to make his fortune as a freebooter. Violence and extortion are rife, and the freebooters will stop at nothing to capture the Papal City of Avignon. This is only the beginning: Italy beckons, and with it, yet more battles against rival mercenaries, powerful cities and the Papal State.

1936. Having returned from Abyssinia, soldier of fortune Cal Jardine is convinced by his abhorrence of fascism to travel to Barcelona and help facilitate rival athletic games to the Berlin Olympics. But now he finds himself in Spain as the first shots of civil war ring out; and friendship, love, and political conviction converge to persuade Jardine to stay and once again embroil himself in foreign war. Discovering that the British athletes attending the games are keen to enlist for the fight, Jardine agrees to train them into a professional force. With old army comrade Vince Castellano and his beautiful interpreter Florencia Gardiola by his side, Jardine leads the athletes through the street battles of Barcelona and onto the fighting in the Catalan countryside, acquiring famous friends and effective allies along the way - as well as dangerous enemies. Manfred Drecker is a German communist diehard, who brooks no moral qualms in his deadly determination to see Spain transformed into a socialist state under the rule of the Soviet Union. Having witnessed his trickery and torture, Jardine is already on his guard against Drecker; but when murderous betrayal blights his previous fortune, Jardine will go to any lengths to seek suitable revenge ...

1935: Cal Jardine is a soldier of fortune. Forced to leave Hamburg, where he has been helping Jews flee the Nazis, he is recruited by a secretive British committee to smuggle guns to Abyssinia, a country threatened by Italian invasion. But first Jardine must procure the weapons from Romania, a country full of treacherous locals, as well as German agents seeking his arrest. By sleight of hand, he contrives to steal the weapons he wanted to buy, before escaping the country leaving both the Romanians and Germans floundering. Taken to the Horn of Africa, the arms are then transported over a harsh landscape, an old slave trader s route full of danger, into the hands of the Ethiopian Army. On his travels Jardine acquires more baggage than he anticipated, including a beautiful, but difficult American female in search of her archaeologist mother, a determined reporter and a daredevil French flyer, while missing out on a painful death by sheer good fortune.But the Ethiopians are ill-equipped to a face a modern Italian army using tanks, bombers, and poison gas. Trained for war, can Jardine simply walk away? Or will he be drawn into a bloody conflict against massive odds, and still save those who now depend on him?"