New World Order

North America, 1754. Virginia’s attempt to remove the French from the Ohio Country has failed, and George Washington returns from the frontier carrying both military experience and responsibility for a conflict larger than any colony can manage alone. London commits regular troops and expects colonial governments to provide money, transport and men, while merchants, smugglers, indentured servants and enslaved people search for advantage or escape within the mobilisation. From Virginia and Boston to Nova Scotia and the Ohio frontier, imperial policy disrupts lives far from the councils that direct it.

The arrival of British commanders exposes the uneasy relationship between professional redcoats and provincial forces. Washington seeks another command as General Edward Braddock prepares an expedition against the French position at the forks of the Ohio, but discipline, supply and unfamiliar terrain threaten the campaign before battle is joined. The novel traces the widening war through several connected lives, showing how loyalty to Britain could coexist with resentments that would later reshape the colonies’ relationship with the empire.