Progress

What if the bad guys were nice? This is the story of the Marshal and the Inquisitor, defenders of a vast and diverse Empire in an alternative, Edwardian world. In visits to a series of castles they investigate corruption, right wrongs, and violently stifle an attempted transition to democracy.

Tommy Ellenborough is the Imperial Marshal, one of twelve heroic soldiers whose main job is to ensure order and reassert the Emperor's power by conducting Progresses. These are tours of inspection which visit each of the Empire's many 'castles', with the Marshals exercising powers of life and death delegated by the Emperor. Each Marshal is accompanied by an Inquisitor who provides support by auditing and inspecting the administration in each castle.

Tommy is the most experienced of the Marshals and is disturbed to find that for his latest Progress he has been assigned a newly-appointed Inquisitor, the youngest ever.

The complete first novel of a trilogy.