Merriam Press Historical Fiction Series

First Edition 2017

Ainslie Souter, a Scottish highwayman, couldn't care less whether Protestants or Catholics rule the world. He's barely escaped an English noose. Now he fights as a mercenary for the Royal House of Sweden. When things settle down at home he'll return.

Hippolito Costello, a fiery Spanish priest, accompanies Catholic forces. He has no hesitation in using his Inquisition training to help his side. Torture and death can easily be justified against Protestant apostates.

Parallel lives, yet each man is changed in his own way by the war in this literary tale, A Soldier Far Away.

The story takes readers into the last great religious war on the European continent, the 17th century. Meticulously researched, A Soldier Far Away offers a grand sweep of the Swedish campaign in northern Europe, where Catholic forces seek to roll back history.

A Soldier Far Away offers timely motifs of all wars-heroism, cowardice, incredible vanities, and idiocy of leadership. Friendships and self-interests, morality and endurance rub shoulders on a daily basis. A collection of striking men and women, from the high to the low march through the pages, but the war is primarily seen through Ainslie and Hippolito's eyes. Scarred by what they've become, both find themselves in an epic battle whose outcome determines their fate.