First published 2013
Charles Gordon stands in the dusty heat of Sudan in 1884, a career army officer whose heroic reputation masks dangerous hubris. He has received clear orders from London, but Gordon believes he knows better. His refusal to obey will topple the Gladstone government and expose the rot at the heart of British imperial ambition. Meanwhile, W T Stead transforms journalism from his editor's desk at the Pall Mall Gazette, pioneering the sensational style that will define tabloid media. In London's grimy streets, a working woman fights for survival and dignity in a world that offers her neither. Three lives intersect against the backdrop of empire's chaotic decline. Gordon's military adventure spirals toward inevitable disaster. Stead chronicles the political fallout. The unnamed woman carves out space for herself despite overwhelming odds. This is a story about men convinced of their own righteousness, about foreign campaigns doomed from the start, and about the women who endure while empires fall.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, military-fiction, adventure, 19th-century, political-thriller
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, unreliable-narrator
Setting: London, Sudan
Period: 1884
392 pages · Paperback · ISIS Large Print Books