Traitor’s Game

 

Traitor’s Game

Today I’m happy to welcome author Rosemary Hayes to the blog in celebration of her fabulous new novel, Traitor’s Game, Book One of the Soldier Spy Series.

‘Right from page one you know you are in the hands of a talented storyteller… An exciting tale of espionage and adventure in the classic mould.’

~ R.N. Morris, author of The Gentle Axe

1808.

Captain Will Fraser has just returned from the Front in the Peninsular War. He is disgraced and penniless, the victim of a conspiracy led by a jealous and influential officer. Fraser has been falsely accused of insubordination and cowardice and dismissed from his regiment.

Fraser and Duncan Armstrong, his wounded Sergeant, arrive in London to seek out Will’s brother, Jack, who works for King George’s Government.

But Jack has disappeared. He vanished from his lodgings a week ago and no one has seen him since. Friends and colleagues are baffled by his disappearance as is the young woman, Clara, who claims to be his wife.

Then Will is viciously attacked, seemingly mistaken for his brother, and only just escapes with his life. When news of this reaches Jack’s colleagues in Government, Will is recruited to find his brother and he and Armstrong set out to follow a trail littered with half-truths and misinformation.

For their task is not quite what it seems.

Will closely resembles his brother and it becomes evident that he is being used as a decoy to flush out Jack’s enemies. These are enemies of the State, for Jack Fraser is a spy and his colleagues believe he has uncovered evidence which will lead to the identity of a French spymaster embedded in the British Government.

Will’s search leads him to France but in this murky world of espionage, nothing is straightforward.

The soldier turned spy must unmask a traitor, before it’s too late.

Interview with the Author:

What’s the tagline or ‘elevator pitch’ for your book?

England is at war with Napoleon – but there are enemies closer to home

How did you come up with the idea for your book?

I was asked to write a trilogy of novellas set during the Napoleonic Wars – a daunting task. 

What particularly interested me was the secret war against Napoleon. That underbelly of every war where agents pass information to their handlers through secret channels, where things are not always what they seem, where the most unlikely people turn out to be working for the enemy. So, the work of spies is the main focus of my stories.

What inspired you to write about that particular era or character?

I gave a lot of thought to creating my main protagonist, Will Fraser. I wanted him to have a military background (and the reason for this becomes clear in the final book in the series) to be disgraced and embittered in some way and to have a strong motivation for becoming involved in espionage (he is desperate to find his brother, Jack, who has disappeared)

How did you create a realistic setting for your story?

There are no shortcuts to this. I did a lot of reading around the social conditions in England at the time, particularly in London, some of which were true life accounts from people involved. I also visited the wonderful network of caves in Hastings to get a feeling for how smugglers took spies across the Channel to France and read a first hand account of a vessel carrying gold and letters for agents being boarded by Government forces. I have also been to Portugal (where the third book in the series is set) and seen where Napoleon and Wellington had their headquarters, staring at each other across the River Douro.

What surprised you in the course of your research?

Just how extensive spying was, at every level, from ambassadors to fishing families, and the courage of the royalists trying to undermine Napoleon’s rule and of how a clever codebreaker helped Wellington win some campaigns. I was also surprised to learn that there had been so many attempts to assassinate Napoleon. One of these very nearly succeeded.  It was the world’s first car bomb (or cart bomb). Britain was closely involved in the plot, which was almost certainly controlled from London.

I also learnt of the de-Christianization of France during the Revolution and how priests and nuns were put to death.

Do your research findings guide the plot, or do you plan out the plot first and flesh it out with research? (Or perhaps both?) 

I certainly have the bare bones of a plot before I start but yes, my research findings guide it, too. I often come across fascinating facts and go down a lot of rabbit holes finding out more. There is always a lot of background reading which needs distilling so that you don’t bombard your poor reader with turgid fact-heavy prose. Personally, I think that making historical facts and background part of an exciting and fast-moving story should be the first priority for a writer of historical fiction.

Name three historical facts or events that helped bring your main character to life.

The buying of commissions into the British Army

The fate of Napoleonic war veterans 

The Peninsular Wars

As historical novelists, we are often left wondering about tantalizing mysteries that can’t quite be solved with our research. If you could invite your main character(s) to dinner, what questions would you ask them, and what lingering mysteries would you hope to solve?

I’d like to ask Will Fraser how he, as a farmer’s son and not from a well born family, was treated by his fellow officers. Given the social hierarchy at the time, did he resent them? Did he admire them? Or did he have confidence in his own ability to lead his men? I’d also like to ask him more about General Hill, Wellington’s second in command, a brilliant man who, if it had not been for Wellington, would almost certainly have commanded the British forces. He doesn’t get much publicity yet he was really admired at the time for his intelligence and compassion and was a great friend to Wellington. 

Do you completely plan out your cast of characters before writing, or do you sometimes add new characters as you go along? What are some of the reason you’ve added new characters to a story?

I usually have the main characters in place but then, as the story progresses I find that I need some  minor ones to make the story work and then if these minor ones develop interesting back stories and personalities, I give them bigger roles to play.

Do you have any tips for other writers about keeping track of your historical fiction research?

I wish I were more organized! I do have files into which I put my research and I refer back to these but, once I have absorbed as much as I can, I find it is more fruitful to concentrate on writing the story and building up the characters.

Do you prefer to write in silence or with background music? If music, what kind and why?

Definitely in silence!

What do you have planned for your next writing project?

I have two more novellas to write in this series and can’t think beyond that!

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing?

Singing, reading, travelling, eating, gardening, seeing friends and family

Buy Links:

Universal Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/bwwEee 

This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

About the Author:

Rosemary Hayes has written over fifty books for children and young adults. She writes in different genres, from edgy teenage fiction (The Mark), historical fiction (The Blue Eyed Aborigine and Forgotten Footprints), middle grade fantasy (Loose Connections, The Stonekeeper’s Child and Break Out)  to chapter books for early readers and texts for picture books. Many of her books have won or been shortlisted for awards and several have been translated into different languages.

Rosemary has travelled widely but now lives in South Cambridgeshire. She has a background in publishing, having worked for Cambridge University Press before setting up her own company Anglia Young Books which she ran for some years. She has been a reader for a well-known authors’ advisory service and runs creative writing workshops for both children and adults.

Rosemary has now turned her hand to adult fiction and her historical novel ‘The King’s Command’ is about the terror and tragedy suffered by a French Huguenot family during the reign of Louis XIV.

And Traitor’s Game, the first book in the Soldier Spy trilogy, set during the Napoleonic Wars, has recently been published.

Author Links:

Website: www.rosemaryhayes.co.uk 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/HayesRosemary 

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rosemary-Hayes/e/B00NAPAPZC