In Parham’s historical novel, World War I–era mercenaries hunt a war criminal in the midst of a flu pandemic.

With the German offensive stalled in 1918, the Great War seems close to an end. Oliver Dunn, a Scottish officer for the British Army, is stationed in Greece and is ready to return to his homeland with his best friend and fellow Scotsman, James Catternach. The men, who are lieutenants and scouts, soon make their way home via train and on horseback. Back in Greece, Garrison Landry, a physician working for the British Army, sees signs of a flu that first appeared in Spain and has been popping up around the globe; after the war, when he returns to his hometown of New Orleans, there’s no doubt that the illness has reached the United States. Meanwhile, Dunn and Catternach reunite with loved ones in Scotland, including Dunn’s grandfather and Catternach’s fiancée. They try to secure viable jobs, but circumstances ultimately push them into accepting an offer from French sea captain Dupont, who wants their help in going after a Hungarian count who’s allegedly responsible for a massacre in France. Dunn and Catternach team up with the captain and a group of mercenaries to track “Le Comte,” as Dupont calls him, to New Orleans, where Landry seems to be succumbing to his opium addiction. When the doctor stumbles onto someone pursuing a diabolical plan, he realizes that he’ll need a clear head to mount an investigation.

Parham’s energetic debut novel shifts between characters and locations around the world, including Budapest, Paris, and several locations in Scotland. Dunn and Landry, as well as Catternach’s betrothed, Lily Campbell (a head nurse), and young Leanna Mouton (who attends a segregated school for Black students in New Orleans), offer engaging narrative perspectives, and each person deals with shared and personal dilemmas. For example, Leanna watches the flu devastate her city and has a feeling, one that she can’t explain, that one particular person in New Orleans is a very “bad man.” The author’s portrayal of early-20th-century history spotlights a frighteningly precarious world; although the Great War ends, some countries never stop fighting, and the flu proves to be merciless wherever it appears. Dunn even questions his and Catternach’s decision to join a band of international mercenaries, even though their goal is a moral one. Will Dupont take things too far in his dogged pursuit of Le Comte? Accordingly, the narrative isn’t easy to predict. Readers receive some minor details about the aforementioned sinister plan, but the entire scheme isn’t immediately clear. There book has some violent and visceral imagery, although Parham doesn’t linger on it; instead, he chooses to build atmospheres, as in a scene in which Landry is in a crowded hospital: “The rows of patients had no dividers for privacy. Landry startled at the sound of an aluminum bedpan hitting the floor and rattling around….In one bed, a man struggled to breathe; he gripped the bed rails with white knuckles and leaned over as he fought to draw in a breath.”

A robust story with rich history and dynamic characters.