Trial and Tribulation continues the sweeping frontier saga begun in Forge and Foundry, plunging deeper into the human cost of empire, war, and survival in colonial America. Set in the violent aftermath of the French and Indian War's opening years, the novel follows John Fraser as the frontier he once fought to hold collapses around him-along with the life he hoped to build.
When Fraser's wife, Jane, is taken west by a Lenape war party during a wave of retaliatory raids, the conflict becomes brutally personal. Gravely wounded while attempting to pursue her, Fraser is forced into a reckoning with his own limits-of strength, faith, and endurance. As he struggles to survive, Jane's story unfolds in parallel: a harrowing journey through the Ohio Country that tests her resilience, courage, and will to protect the child she carries.
Inspired by real events and grounded in meticulous historical detail, Trial and Tribulation explores captivity, cultural collision, and the fragile spaces between enemies and allies. Indigenous leaders navigate impossible choices amid encroaching colonial powers, while settlers and soldiers confront the moral consequences of expansion and revenge.
At its heart, the novel is a deeply human story-of love strained by separation, identity forged through suffering, and the quiet strength required to endure when fate strips everything else away. Against a backdrop of wilderness, war, and shifting loyalties, Trial and Tribulation asks whether survival alone is victory-and what must be sacrificed to reclaim hope in a world remade by violence.
