The Damascened Blade

"American heiresses, handsome afghan tribes men - they are all here in spades. A great blood and guts blockbuster." GUARDIAN
CWA ELLIS PETERS HISTORICAL DAGGER AWARD
The North-West Frontier, 1910. Ignoring a command to retreat, a young Scottish subaltern sets out alone to rescue a wounded British officer from the Pathan tribesmen who are slowly torturing him to death. Over a dozen years later the backwash of this tragedy threatens to engulf Joe Sandilands. On secondment from Scotland Yard, Joe is spending a fortnight with his old army friend, James Lindsay, commander of the front line fort at Gor Khatri. When another guest, a handsome Pathan prince, dies mysteriously in the night, hostages are taken and Joe and James are given an ultimatum - identify, arrest and execute the killer before the frontier erupts once again into war.