Fortune’s Soldier

by Alex Rutherford Book 1 in the Ballantyne Chronicles series.

First published 2021

Amazon

4.3(1,550)

Scotland, 1744. When danger surrounding his family makes remaining at home impossible, young Nicholas Ballantyne is sent to India to enter the service of the British East India Company. In a world of commercial rivalry and fragile alliances, he befriends the ambitious Robert Clive and learns that advancement depends as much on political judgement as on courage.

As British and French competition intensifies, Nicholas is drawn from trading settlements into military command. The struggle leads to Bengal and the Battle of Plassey, where the Company’s victory can make fortunes and overturn an existing political order. Nicholas must decide what loyalty means when private ambition, corporate power and the future of India become inseparable.