The Winter Soldiers

by Garry Douglas Kilworth

Overview

The fourth Crimea adventure for Sergeant 'Fancy Jack' Crossman and his band of brothers Jack Crossman and the privations of war during a Russian winter, in which a few hardy soldiers cause confusion and havoc among the enemy. After the battle of Inkerman on 5th November 1854 the British Army face a terrible winter with inadequate provisions and clothing. In this grim season Sergeant Jack Crossman and his men are billeted at Kadikoi village near Balaclave harbour, with instructions to blow up the magazine in the Russian Star Fort. Yet it transpires this is not to be Crossman's main mission. His true task is to spy on a British general accused of corruption, and to bring about his downfall. Set against a bleak backdrop it is only the grit and determination of Crossman and his men which allows them to survive against all odds in the field.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472104045
Publisher:	Little, Brown Book Group
Publication date:	09/01/2012
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	599 KB

About the Author

Garry Kilworth was raised in South Yemen, the son of an RAF sergeant. Later he served 15 years in the RAF himself. Most recently he was with the British Army in Hong Kong, where he wrote for the South China Morning Post. He now spends his time between Suffolk and Spain, writing full time. He has won many awards for both his children's and adult novels. Constable published the hardback of The Winter Soldiers last year and it appeared as one of Hatchard's most favoured summer 2002 titles.
Garry Douglas Kilworth was raised in South Yemen, the son of an RAF sergeant. He served fifteen years in the RAF himself, and was with the British Army in Hong Kong, where he wrote for the South China Morning Post. He now spends his time between Suffolk and Spain, writing full time, and has won many awards.

Editorial Reviews

A Victorian military series crosses the Atlantic, picking up the adventures of a proto-commando hero in the middle of the Crimean War. Alexander Kirk is the semi-aristocrat seeking adventure as a sergeant on special assignments in Her Majesty's soon-to-be imperial army. Born on the wrong side of the sheets to a blustering, career-army Scottish baronet and his housemaid but raised in the manor by a loving stepmother, Kirk fights under the nom de guerre of Jack Crossman, "Fancy Jack" to his admirers. Keenly intelligent and well educated but with something of a chip on his shoulder, "Fancy Jack" has been shunted out of the mainstream of his regiment to head up a band of commandos doing the kind of intelligence-gathering the more gentlemanly general staffers wouldn't dream of touching. American readers will need a bit of intelligence-gathering themselves as they're dropped into the middle of Jack's career, picking up his story as the French and English lay siege to the Russians in Sebastopol. The Russians may be the enemy, but the aristocratic idiots at the top of the British command, particularly Lord Raglan, seem to be doing the most damage to an army that's underfed and underdressed in an icy Black Sea winter. In a series of actions, Jack and his almost politically correct band of warriors (a loyal Turk, an American, a woman disguised as a man, etc.) seek out and partially destroy a band of marauding deserters, spy on a corrupt general, destroy a German anti-siege machine, and clean up the half of the marauding deserter band that got away. In the process, Jack is charged with the education of a by-the-book lieutenant and, in a truly odd sidebar, with the education of a classroom full ofmilitary brats. There's occasional time for dalliance with some pretty ladies, including a now-married past love and an equally attractive "cousin." Not as cerebral as Patrick O'Brian, but full of interesting war bits. And "Fancy Jack" is an attractive hero.

Kirkus Reviews