The Hessian - Book 4

Evil cares little about life
…except to consume it

As 1755 ends, the English/American colonies lament a disastrous year of defeats. The worst of these defeats was suffered by the English army sent to retake Fort Duquesne. Newspapers would report that over half of the army had perished along with most of its officers, including Major General Edward Braddock, the army’s commander. So high were casualties among the officer corps, that Lieutenant Colonel George Washington of the Virginia Militia, assumed command and organized the army’s retreat from the battlefield, or it might have been much worse. It was a massive humiliating defeat for England’s professional redcoats, by the wilderness armies of France and its tribal allies. Future colonial American folk heroes were involved in this bloody affair and lived to tell the tale. Daniel Boone, the famous frontiersman, and his cousin Daniel Morgan, who would later become a famous Revolutionary War general. 

At the beginning of 1756, Corrinne de Chanaye, Philippe Gerrard, his son Henri, and Charles VanderMeer, are now separated by great distances, though not by choice. Philippe and Henri fight for New France. Major Philippe Gerrard is in the Pennsylvania wilderness. Henri Gerrard is sent to the fortress-port of Louisbourg near Nova Scotia. Corrinne and her twin babies, pursued by something evil, take refuge by hiding in an old house in the provincial settlement of  southern Connecticut. Charles VanderMeer remains in Boston, hoping to draw the servants of the wraith away from Corrinne.

The demon-possessed Wilhelm von Kleinfels, is promoted to colonel, by Frederick II of Prussia. He collects new and more deadly assassins, ones expert in venoms and poisons, killers who will pose as skilled healers. Partnered with polished men of business, they craft multiple plans for murder, using subtle and unexpected methods, in unexpected places, among everyday crowds and familiar streets. Assassins attired in disguises of mercy for one purpose—to kill the descendants of the Great Houses without mercy. "Find the châsse, break the seals." But they are not alone. The ghost eagle never sleeps. It now communicates with Philippe, Corrinne and Henri by sending images to them in their dreams. The ghost eagle will confront the vulnax and Colonel von Kleinfels. 

The gripping Tales of the Ghost Eagle continues as the "war of peace" between England and France escalates in North America until formal declarations of war must be proclaimed. The great powers of Prussia, Austria, and Russia are drawn into war. Europe erupts with marching armies again. From a small skirmish in western Pennsylvania, the conflict now becomes a global war—The Seven Years War.