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Civil War Chronicles #4
Assassin's Reign
The forces of King Charles are victorious; their Parliamentarian enemies in deep crisis. In the west, the crucial port city of Bristol has fallen, and Royalist eyes fall quickly upon neighbouring Gloucester. Its walls are weak, its garrison under strength, and its governor - Sir Edward Massie - suspected of harbouring sympathy for the King.
Stryker and his men are with the army as it converges on Gloucester, still reeling from the loss of a close friend at the bloody Battle of Stratton. Ordered to infiltrate the rebel city on a mission to discover whether Massie will indeed surrender, Stryker reluctantly embarks upon his most desperate mission yet. But Gloucester's defenders are more resolute than any had imagined, and catastrophe soon befalls him. With his life seemingly forfeit, Stryker is spared by an unlikely saviour; Vincent Skaithlocke, his former commander. The mercenary has returned to England to fight for Parliament, and offers Stryker his protection. As old friends adjust to life fighting for opposing sides, Stryker begins to question his own loyalties . . . but a chance discovery makes him realise that all in Gloucester is not what it seems, for a hidden menace threatens his own life, and that of King Charles himself.
Stryker and his men are with the army as it converges on Gloucester, still reeling from the loss of a close friend at the bloody Battle of Stratton. Ordered to infiltrate the rebel city on a mission to discover whether Massie will indeed surrender, Stryker reluctantly embarks upon his most desperate mission yet. But Gloucester's defenders are more resolute than any had imagined, and catastrophe soon befalls him. With his life seemingly forfeit, Stryker is spared by an unlikely saviour; Vincent Skaithlocke, his former commander. The mercenary has returned to England to fight for Parliament, and offers Stryker his protection. As old friends adjust to life fighting for opposing sides, Stryker begins to question his own loyalties . . . but a chance discovery makes him realise that all in Gloucester is not what it seems, for a hidden menace threatens his own life, and that of King Charles himself.
480 pages, Hardcover
First published July 4, 2013
About the author
Michael Arnold
122 books109 followersMike is the author of the Captain Stryker Adventures, The Savage Isle series, the Highwayman trilogy and the crime thriller, Corpse Thief.
He lives in Hampshire with his wife, four kids, three cats and several noisy guinea pigs.
Mike’s books have twice been selected in The Sunday Times “Historical Novels of the Year”, and his acclaimed English Civil War series (Stryker) is set to make its long-awaited return in 2026.
He lives in Hampshire with his wife, four kids, three cats and several noisy guinea pigs.
Mike’s books have twice been selected in The Sunday Times “Historical Novels of the Year”, and his acclaimed English Civil War series (Stryker) is set to make its long-awaited return in 2026.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 16, 2021
Read this book in 2013, this book is set in the year, AD1643, and with Captain Innocent Stryker in full flow during the English Civil War.
Very much recommended, for this book is: "A Fabulous Stryker Adventure"!
Very much recommended, for this book is: "A Fabulous Stryker Adventure"!
September 21, 2026
Ive enjoyed the series (uptil now) but got to admit I drifted a lot throughout this one, jus couldn't get into a good rhythm with it & even skipped reading for 7 days as didn't fancy it.... but still determined to finish it!!! The characters just dinny grab me this time, felt the story got bogged down (literally) in the siege of Gloucester, where we just kept going over the same mechanics... raids from the besieged & tunnelling from the besiegers.... there was a few other sub-plots but even those felt on a merry-go-round (rinse & repeat)
A shame as ive very much enjoyed it all til now, I'll continue the series for sure and tbh 3 isn't that bad a score (rounded up from the 2.5)
A shame as ive very much enjoyed it all til now, I'll continue the series for sure and tbh 3 isn't that bad a score (rounded up from the 2.5)
March 27, 2025
Page-turner.
May 24, 2025
The fourth instalment of the Stryker series. Excellent story with great characters, especially the villains that Stryker encounters. He sure does collect enemies.
June 24, 2013
Michael Arnold's series of Civil War Chronicles, featuring the fascinating and very real hero of Captain Stryker, is among my very favourite series of novels. It never disappoints and always thrills and moves. Assassin's reign is no different. A joy to read from start to finish. One of the real delights of this series is that it has opened my eyes to the legacy of the English Civil War around me. I love hearing about the role of places I know in this horrendous but thoroughly interesting period of English history. I won't see Gloucester with the same eyes after Assassin's Reign. Outstanding historical fiction (do start the series from the beginning).
July 23, 2013
enjoyed the latest in the captain stryker series based around Gloucester in 1643 and the subplots brings the feel of the early stages of the English civil war to life
July 22, 2026
Another gripping tale. Had me transfixed from start to finish. Poor old Stryker, beaten up, yet again, nearly killed, yet again, lost his girl, yet again, but happy in the end. I love the pattern Michael weaves, taking the reader from one point of view, to another. And throw the curved ball of a hired Assassin in, just to add intrigue into the mix. I do love the character of Skellen, not the most attractive person, but what a shadow, always on hand to help Stryker. And, add a little dark humour to the story. Epic battle descriptions, and atmospheric descriptions of life in those troubled times. A clear 10/10 for me.
August 27, 2026
1643. On a run of wins, the Royalist army seems unstoppable. They travel to Gloucester to take on the Parliamentarian forces there. Stryker infiltrates to check the rumours that the governor, Sir Edward Massie, is sympathising with the King.
Stryker finds something else when he penetrates the walls. He begins to question his own loyalties as he meets an old comrade and uncovers an assassination plot.
We are taken to the heart of the English Civil War, described in vast atmospheric detail. The story questions sides, purpose, and the reality of war.
This is the fourth book by Michael Arnold following Stryker and his band, and it certainly doesn't let up.
Stryker finds something else when he penetrates the walls. He begins to question his own loyalties as he meets an old comrade and uncovers an assassination plot.
We are taken to the heart of the English Civil War, described in vast atmospheric detail. The story questions sides, purpose, and the reality of war.
This is the fourth book by Michael Arnold following Stryker and his band, and it certainly doesn't let up.
September 25, 2022
Probably nearer to a 3.5 rating. It was interesting historically as I didn't know anything about the Gloucester siege in the Civil War and its relevance to the dramatic change in fortunes for Parliament. As for the story I felt at times the momentum flagged at times. I still love the tale of Stryker and Lisette, but feel at times, considering Stryker is supposed to be a wonderful soldier - which was evident in the first novel of the series - in this he seems to get caught out a lot. In summary: when it was good, this was very, very good, but when it wasn't, it was just a bit average.
November 23, 2022
Worst one in the series. About the siege of Gloucester had plenty of little fights and action scenes but no major battle like the rest of the book
December 13, 2023
A thrilling, daring novel of assassins, war and honour. As usual, an amazing chronicle by Arnold... I look forward to the next!
June 8, 2013
Its the summer of 1643 and the Royalist cause is in the ascendency. With the defeat of the rebel army at Stratton and then the bloody capture of Bristol, it seems that the Royalists are close to overall victory.
At this point divisions with the royal court surface with some calling for an immediate march on London and Parliaments heartland, while others call for the capture of Gloucester and securing the West of the country.
With the Governor of Gloucester hinting he may surrender the town to the Royalist cause. Prince Rupert asks Stryker to enter the city undercover and gauge the mood of the Governor and the citizens of the town.
As Lisette is on a important mission in London, Stryker is a reluctant spy but with no choice to obey orders he deserts the Royal army and makes his way into the town.
Inside the town he will face unexpected dangers and will be saved from a painful death by a face from the past, someone who Stryker regards as a father figure.
Along with the implacable determination of Governor Massie and the citizens of Gloucester this unexpected appearance will cause Stryker to question his loyalty to the Royalist cause.
Only when he learns that an assassin is loose within the Royalist lines does Stryker realize where his true loyalty lay but can he escape the besieged town and find the assassin before the assassin finds King Charles?
Assassin’s Reign is the fourth book in a planned ten book series from Michael Arnold.
I have been a fan of the Stryker books from the very first book (Traitors blood) and in my humble opinion each book gets better and better.
Stryker is a fantastic character to follow, with his badly scared face and dour demeanor he is a lot darker than your average hero. In Assassin’s Reign this darkness takes a further twist as he struggles with the grief from the death of a young officer under his command. This gives him an anger that is terrifying in its intensity and even scares the men under his command.
It can by quite easy to write a character that is too dark to really enjoy, even if he is the hero and the two things that stop him from becoming too dark is his friendship with Sergeant Skellen and his love for the Queen’s agent, Lisette.
This lighter, more human side is a perfect counterweight to the battle sacred and weary solider Stryker has become over the years of war.
I also enjoyed the added back story to Stryker’s life as we learn more about his adventures in the European wars and again it just adds another layer to his character.
Assassin’s Reign brings to life the long and bloody siege of Gloucester. It really captures the defenders extra incentive to protect their loved ones and homes from the marauding Royal army and shows the frustration of that army as the town continues to resist and cause casualties amongst them. It makes you understand why armies ran wild when they finally captured towns and cities after a long siege.
I think he author has done a clever thing by placing Stryker within the walls of Gloucester because he has switched the allegiance of the reader from the Royalist side to the defenders. I ended up routing for them even though I’m a royalist at heart!
With an interesting side story of Lisette’s mission to London and her desperate escape this is a fast paced and well rounded book that kept me entertained on the train over two days.
In year of great books on the English Civil War this book easily holds it own. I would recommend starting from the beginning so you get to enjoy Stryker’s growth over the four books but you could read this as a stand alone.
At this point divisions with the royal court surface with some calling for an immediate march on London and Parliaments heartland, while others call for the capture of Gloucester and securing the West of the country.
With the Governor of Gloucester hinting he may surrender the town to the Royalist cause. Prince Rupert asks Stryker to enter the city undercover and gauge the mood of the Governor and the citizens of the town.
As Lisette is on a important mission in London, Stryker is a reluctant spy but with no choice to obey orders he deserts the Royal army and makes his way into the town.
Inside the town he will face unexpected dangers and will be saved from a painful death by a face from the past, someone who Stryker regards as a father figure.
Along with the implacable determination of Governor Massie and the citizens of Gloucester this unexpected appearance will cause Stryker to question his loyalty to the Royalist cause.
Only when he learns that an assassin is loose within the Royalist lines does Stryker realize where his true loyalty lay but can he escape the besieged town and find the assassin before the assassin finds King Charles?
Assassin’s Reign is the fourth book in a planned ten book series from Michael Arnold.
I have been a fan of the Stryker books from the very first book (Traitors blood) and in my humble opinion each book gets better and better.
Stryker is a fantastic character to follow, with his badly scared face and dour demeanor he is a lot darker than your average hero. In Assassin’s Reign this darkness takes a further twist as he struggles with the grief from the death of a young officer under his command. This gives him an anger that is terrifying in its intensity and even scares the men under his command.
It can by quite easy to write a character that is too dark to really enjoy, even if he is the hero and the two things that stop him from becoming too dark is his friendship with Sergeant Skellen and his love for the Queen’s agent, Lisette.
This lighter, more human side is a perfect counterweight to the battle sacred and weary solider Stryker has become over the years of war.
I also enjoyed the added back story to Stryker’s life as we learn more about his adventures in the European wars and again it just adds another layer to his character.
Assassin’s Reign brings to life the long and bloody siege of Gloucester. It really captures the defenders extra incentive to protect their loved ones and homes from the marauding Royal army and shows the frustration of that army as the town continues to resist and cause casualties amongst them. It makes you understand why armies ran wild when they finally captured towns and cities after a long siege.
I think he author has done a clever thing by placing Stryker within the walls of Gloucester because he has switched the allegiance of the reader from the Royalist side to the defenders. I ended up routing for them even though I’m a royalist at heart!
With an interesting side story of Lisette’s mission to London and her desperate escape this is a fast paced and well rounded book that kept me entertained on the train over two days.
In year of great books on the English Civil War this book easily holds it own. I would recommend starting from the beginning so you get to enjoy Stryker’s growth over the four books but you could read this as a stand alone.
June 27, 2013
The fourth book in a series is, I sometimes find, a stumbling block for an author. The debut can be strong, the second where they find their feet, and the third where they really shine. Often, though, the fourth is where they over-reach, run out of ideas or become formulaic.
I am delighted to say that none of this holds for Michael Arnold’s new opus.
Continuing a trend of increasing quality, Assassin’s Reign is indeed better even than the excellent Hunter’s Rage, which was itself a triumph.
In this fourth book we find the current dour and acerbic Captain Stryker once more called to carry out the clandestine whims of Prince Rupert, though this time his mission will take him far from the companionship of his company and friends, not only deadly danger, but also into a situation that threatens his very soul. While facing dilemmas and impossible choices – torn between two conflicting duties – Stryker comes face to face with an important figure from his past only to uncover a dastardly plot with far-reaching consequences.
As these troubles progress, we are also treated to a separate thread following the resourceful and dangerous spy Lisette, and her search for the heiress Cecily Cade. Gradually, as armies manoeuvre around the country to deal with the crucial fortress of Gloucester, Lysette and her mission converge with Stryker and other, more sinister characters, leading to a masterly crescendo.
Much of the novel revolves – without giving away anything important (no spoilers) – around the siege of Gloucester and while, unlike Arnold’s first three books, there is no presentation of a pitched battle in this one, the setting affords for the first time a real opportunity to view the war from both sides of the Royalist/Parliamentarian divide, and also of the Besieged/Besieger one. An opportunity, I may say, that the author takes and makes shine. Where the roundheads are often portrayed in this series as spiteful and harsh puritans (necessarily given the protagonist’s viewpoint) here we meet Parliamentarians that both we – and Stryker – can not only understand, but sympathise with and even rally behind. You will like Massie. I promise.
In this fourth installment we learn a little more of Stryker’s past while being introduced to a couple of new and interesting characters. Stryker is actually given more depth than previously, displaying the less pleasant side of his character as he wallows in the loss of his friend Andrew in the previous book, and struggling with ethical conundrums. Lysette is given more of a starring role, since for much of the book she is the protagonist of her own plot.
The tale is tense and realistic and the quality of the writing is as good as you would expect if you’ve read Hunter’s Rage and its predecessors, but this particular plot gives Arnold the chance to create a more tense and personal atmosphere than in the previous, more ‘pitched battle‘ works.
Stryker and his friends go from strength to strength and if you’ve not read the earlier books in this series, I urge you heartily to hunt them down and read them. If you have, this fourth book should hit the spot perfectly.
Despite its tenseness and atmosphere, this is an action packed, tense tale with the pace of a cavalry charge and the power of a culverin shot.
Well done again, Mr Arnold.
I am delighted to say that none of this holds for Michael Arnold’s new opus.
Continuing a trend of increasing quality, Assassin’s Reign is indeed better even than the excellent Hunter’s Rage, which was itself a triumph.
In this fourth book we find the current dour and acerbic Captain Stryker once more called to carry out the clandestine whims of Prince Rupert, though this time his mission will take him far from the companionship of his company and friends, not only deadly danger, but also into a situation that threatens his very soul. While facing dilemmas and impossible choices – torn between two conflicting duties – Stryker comes face to face with an important figure from his past only to uncover a dastardly plot with far-reaching consequences.
As these troubles progress, we are also treated to a separate thread following the resourceful and dangerous spy Lisette, and her search for the heiress Cecily Cade. Gradually, as armies manoeuvre around the country to deal with the crucial fortress of Gloucester, Lysette and her mission converge with Stryker and other, more sinister characters, leading to a masterly crescendo.
Much of the novel revolves – without giving away anything important (no spoilers) – around the siege of Gloucester and while, unlike Arnold’s first three books, there is no presentation of a pitched battle in this one, the setting affords for the first time a real opportunity to view the war from both sides of the Royalist/Parliamentarian divide, and also of the Besieged/Besieger one. An opportunity, I may say, that the author takes and makes shine. Where the roundheads are often portrayed in this series as spiteful and harsh puritans (necessarily given the protagonist’s viewpoint) here we meet Parliamentarians that both we – and Stryker – can not only understand, but sympathise with and even rally behind. You will like Massie. I promise.
In this fourth installment we learn a little more of Stryker’s past while being introduced to a couple of new and interesting characters. Stryker is actually given more depth than previously, displaying the less pleasant side of his character as he wallows in the loss of his friend Andrew in the previous book, and struggling with ethical conundrums. Lysette is given more of a starring role, since for much of the book she is the protagonist of her own plot.
The tale is tense and realistic and the quality of the writing is as good as you would expect if you’ve read Hunter’s Rage and its predecessors, but this particular plot gives Arnold the chance to create a more tense and personal atmosphere than in the previous, more ‘pitched battle‘ works.
Stryker and his friends go from strength to strength and if you’ve not read the earlier books in this series, I urge you heartily to hunt them down and read them. If you have, this fourth book should hit the spot perfectly.
Despite its tenseness and atmosphere, this is an action packed, tense tale with the pace of a cavalry charge and the power of a culverin shot.
Well done again, Mr Arnold.
April 20, 2014
I received this novel in a Goodreads giveaway and did wonder how I would get on without having read the first three books in the Civil War Chronicles. I needn't have worried, this books works very well as a standalone story, telling the tale of the siege of Gloucester in 1643. The cast of characters ably bring to life this dangerous period of history where soldiers "turned coat" depending on which side was winning in the Civil War and spies were everywhere. Captain Stryker shows us his human side when he finds himself admiring his enemies and realising that no-one is ever really a winner in war.
The action is written with gruesome realism depicting horrific loss of life and just goes to show that nothing much has really changed in 400 years of warfare. A thoroughly good read!
The action is written with gruesome realism depicting horrific loss of life and just goes to show that nothing much has really changed in 400 years of warfare. A thoroughly good read!
March 14, 2014
The fourth of Michael Arnold's Civil War Chronicles, this (I have to say) I actually found to be heavier going than any of the previous. The bulk of this novel concerns the Royalist siege of Gloucester - which, in hindsight, would prove to be the turning point of the war - during which (as any fictional hero would) Captain Stryker finds himself on both sides of the line - echoes, here, of Sharpe's Tiger!
October 13, 2013
Lacking the energy of the previous novels in the series in large part because Arnold takes on the task of covering the siege of Gloucester -- in great detail and from multiple viewpoints. In doing so he skips the sort of adventure his protagonists usually enjoy and the story drags and drags.
December 8, 2013
The series continues with the same high standard.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews