1936. Having returned from Abyssinia, soldier of fortune Cal Jardine is convinced 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 the demands of friendship, love, and politics embroil Jardine once again in foreign war. A new adventure from the bestselling author of The Pillars of Rome.

JACK LUDLOW is the pen name of writer David Donachie, who was born in Edinburgh in 1944. He has had a variety of jobs, including selling everything from business machines to soap. He has always had an abiding interest in the naval history of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which he drew upon for the many novels he has set in that period. The author of a number of bestselling books, he now lives in Deal with his wife, the novelist Sarah Grazebrook.