Book excerpt: BOOK 5 IN THE BALLANTYNE SERIES, BY INTERNATIONAL SENSATION WILBUR SMITH 'Best historical novelist' - Stephen King 'A master storyteller' - Sunday Times 'Wilbur Smith is one of those benchmarks against whom others are compared' - The Times 'No one does adventure quite like Smith' - Daily Mirror A FEARSOME ENEMY. A CITY UNDER SIEGE. In the burning heat of the Sudanese sun, the city of Khartoum is under siege from the fearsome forces of the Mahdi, the charismatic leader of rebel forces who tire of the brutal Egyptian government. In Khartoum, along with thousands of innocent citizens, are trapped the fanatical General Charles Gordon, intrepid soldier Penrod Ballantyne of the 10th Hussars, English trader Ryder Courtney and the British consul, David Benbrook, and his three beautiful daughters, Rebecca, Saffron and Amber. As rescue becomes increasingly unlikely, this group of Queen Victoria's loyal citizens must unite to prepare themselves against a violent enemy, and for the savage battle that must surely follow . . . The Courtneys meet the Ballantynes in a sweeping adventure from the master of adventure fiction. The fifth book in the epic Ballantyne Series and the first in an exciting crossover sequence between Wilbur Smith's two iconic family sagas, the Ballantynes and the Courtneys. The adventures of the Ballantynes and Courtneys continue in Book 6 of the Ballantyne series, King of Kings, available now and Book 7, Fire on the Horizon, coming soon. Available to pre-order now.