The Blood Road by Martin Swan

The frontier is no longer a battlefield between two armies.

It has become a war fought in shadows.

Major Nathaniel Harwood and the battered survivors of the First Fifty-Eight have already paid dearly for what they uncovered at Blackwater. Now Harwood leads a small British force west once more, determined to stop Colonel Marchand before his growing network of soldiers, settlements and secret alliances spreads beyond anyone's control.

But Marchand is no longer simply running.

He is building.

Across forgotten roads, isolated settlements and hidden river routes, Harwood discovers a conspiracy stretching through British territory, French trading networks, wealthy land companies and the mysterious remnants of the Rook organisation. Old allies cannot be trusted. Prisoners possess information worth killing for. And men supposedly serving the same king may be pursuing very different wars.

From the blood-soaked crossing at Saint-Loup to the deadly Narrows, Grey Furnace, Red Fork and the hidden sites of Marchand's expanding empire, Harwood and his men are forced into a relentless series of ambushes, raids and desperate engagements against enemies who often know their movements before they make them.

Every victory costs men.

Every answer reveals another secret.

And somewhere beyond the frontier lies the truth about who is really controlling the war.

The Blood Road is Book Two of The Frontier Company Trilogy — a gritty historical military adventure of musket battles, wilderness warfare, espionage, betrayal and survival during the Seven Years' War.

The road west has been paid for in blood. Harwood intends to discover who is collecting the price.