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The Sword Saga #1

The Sword and the Scalpel

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Harry Brand feels he can never live up to his military family’s illustrious past…

So when he fails medical school in 1935, he takes himself off to Ethiopia to serve as a medical orderly with a Red Cross unit.

In these sun-baked deserts, serving with the army of Hailie Selassie against the ambitions of Benito Mussolini, he gains first-hand knowledge of the horrors of war.

It is here also, that he first makes the acquaintance of a woman who is to have a profound effect on the rest of his life…

Years later, he finds himself at war again, this time against Nazi Germany.

Harry's instincts are all for the saving rather than the taking of lives, but now he must learn to kill to survive, just as he must learn to cope with the women who seek to dominate his life.

The lovely, over-confident, infuriating Constance, the beautiful, sensual, tragic Nicole and the woman who keeps turning up in the oddest places, Marion all become strong forces to contend with.

The Sword and The Scalpel is the first in a gripping series of historical novels about the Brand family and the British Army that capture the emotional experience of those who fought in war.

Christopher Nicole was born in the West Indies in 1930 and currently resides in the Channel Islands with his wife, Diana, who is also a novelist. He has written over 200 fiction and non-fiction books since 1957, including the best-selling, five-volume Caribee series. He primarily writes historical novels and specialises in series and sagas, and has won international acclaim for his work under several pseudonyms, including Max Marlow, Andrew York, and Alan Savage.

271 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 28, 1996

77 people are currently reading
44 people want to read

About the author

Christopher Nicole

216 books56 followers
Christopher Robin Nicole was born on 7 December 1930 in Georgetown, British Guiana (now Guyana), where he was raised. He is the son of Jean Dorothy (Logan) and Jack Nicole, a police officer, both Scottish. He studied at Queen's College in Guyana and at Harrison College in Barbados. He was a fellow at the Canadian Bankers Association and a clerk for the Royal Bank of Canada in Georgetown and Nassau from 1947 to 1956. In 1957, he moved to Guernsey, Channel Islands, United Kingdom, where he currently lives, but he also has a domicile in Spain.

On 31 March 1951, he married his first wife, Jean Regina Amelia Barnett, with whom he had two sons, Bruce and Jack, and two daughters, Julie and Ursula, they divorced. On 8 May 1982 he married for the second time with fellow writer Diana Bachmann.

As a romantic and passionate of history, Nicole has been published since 1957, when he published a book about West Indian Cricket. He published his first novel in 1959 with his first stories set in his native Caribbean. Later he wrote many historical novels set mostly in tumultuous periods like World War I, World War II and the Cold War, and depict places in Europe, Asia and Africa. He also wrote classic romance novels. He specialized in Series and Sagas, and continues to write into the 21st century with no intention of retiring.

He signs his books as Christopher Nicole and uses several pseudonyms, some of them female. Pseudonyms used include: Peter Grange, Andrew York, Robin Cade, Mark Logan, Christina Nicholson, Alison York, Leslie Arlen, Robin Nicholson, C. R. Nicholson, Daniel Adams, Simon McKay, Caroline Gray and Alan Savage. He wrote disaster thrillers in collaboration with his wife, Diana Bachmann, under the penname Max Marlow. Under his different pseudonyms he has worked with many publishing houses: Jarrolds, Hutchinson, Simon & Schuster, Coward-McCann & Geoghegan, Jove, Michael Joseph, Mills & Boon, and Severn House.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christop... and
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5 stars
127 (46%)
4 stars
100 (36%)
3 stars
34 (12%)
2 stars
8 (2%)
1 star
5 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
6 reviews
January 30, 2020
Cracking tale! Moves on apace and keeps reader longing for more. Ending too abrupt but. Makes one keen to read next book. Historical detail accurate and well written. No5 adoring moment.

See above! Really enjoyed this story. Very keen to read sequel. Fiction and faction well combined. Characterisation excellent and enthralling.
197 reviews1 follower
April 14, 2020
The battle has only just begun

Another great story hence the 5 stars. So much turmoil lovers wife and battles to contend with you will have read this book to find out who survives.
5 reviews1 follower
November 11, 2024
I had to shelve it half way through

I expect a war novel to be 90% about the war and 10% about sex…not the reverse. Not worth it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews

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