Tigers East

Author’s Note:

Dear Readers,

Here we are, opening Season Four of the series where I last left you, with Gromyko, and with Fedorov’s bold decision to persist with his mission, in spite of Karpov’s order to return to the ship. You and I know just how determined, and how resourceful Anton Fedorov can be, but even he will be surprised by what happens next. We will get to that again before this novel ends, but first, there is a good amount of wartime action to relate.

I have two theaters heating up now in late 1942. In the west we will return to Patton’s battle in Algeria, and the naval action off Algiers as Tovey attempts to command the seas between that port and the vital Allied supply port of Oran. And we will also revisit an old warrior, apparently beaten and brooding on his defensive lines at Mersa Brega—Erwin Rommel. The Desert Fox has a sudden awakening here, bent on recapturing his old glory again. Whether he can ever do so in the shadow of Kinlan’s Heavy Brigade remains to be seen, but there will be surprises ahead, and unexpected wrinkles in the fate line on Rommel’s palm.

Then we must also take our Tigers East, and relate what has been happening with Operation Blue. There the Germans fight to secure two key objectives. The first will recount von Rundstedt’s drive to take Voronezh, sending Model and Hoth in a big pincer operation. The second follows Manstein and General Steiner’s SS Korps as they push into the lower Don bend towards Volgograd. Now Sergei Kirov and General Zhukov will have two new crisis points to handle, and desperate decisions must be made to try and prevent a general collapse, and survive until the winter of 1942.

After these battles are fought, we return to Fedorov’s dire mission, where unforeseen visitors, and the strange hand of fate, lead him to a moment of real destiny.

A word on the Battle Books…

Many readers have written to tell me how much they enjoy the new Battle Books, which extract chapters forming a major subplot from the series and present them in one continuous narrative. So far we’ve had two released, Foxbane and Vendetta. The next book was going to involve all the East Front action, but I have decided to postpone that volume so it can include material presented here in Tigers East and also from the book following this one, which will be heavy on the great battle for Volgograd, Thor’s Anvil.

Readers have also asked me what happened to other subplots that have not been given much ink in Seasons 2 and 3, notably the Keyholders Saga, the mystery involving Duke Elvington’s trip to 1815 on the eve of Waterloo, Paul Dorland and the Meridian Team in 2021, and many other related events, such as the planned raid on Gibraltar to discover what may be hidden beneath St Michael’s Cave.

So there will be a new Battle Book coming August 1, (assuming I can get it edited!), and in it I will include a good deal of new material involving these other plot lines. In effect, it is going to present one major subplot story line, which will then be extended to include material that I haven’t had room to fit into the regular Kirov Series, all concerning the mystery of the seven keys. I’ve been focusing mostly on the alternate history of the war in recent main series volumes, but if you like those other subplots, the next Battle Book will present material that may not appear anywhere else in the main series. A more detailed announcement on the next Battle Book appears at the end of this volume.

Enjoy!