Assassin’s Reign

In 1643, Royalist victory at Bristol turns King Charles’s army towards Gloucester, a strategically vital Parliamentarian city whose governor, Edward Massie, is suspected of divided loyalties. Captain Innocent Stryker enters the city to learn whether Massie will surrender. The mission follows the loss of a close companion at Stratton and places Stryker among defenders more determined than Royalist intelligence has admitted.

Captured inside Gloucester, Stryker is protected by Vincent Skaithlocke, his former commander, who now fights for Parliament. Their reluctant accommodation forces both men to confront the loyalties that have placed old comrades on opposing sides. Evidence of a concealed assassination plot raises the stakes beyond the siege: Stryker must escape, identify the conspirators and prevent a threat directed at Charles I before the city’s resistance consumes the Royalist army.