RELEASE DATE FEBRUARY 4, 2016. Libya, 1805: A makeshift army of Arabs, Greeks, Egyptians and U.S. Marines, "all mixed riotously together," sets off across North Africa to rescue three hundred American sailors imprisoned by the King of Tripoli. The expedition is soon beset by a series of brutal and mysterious murders--at first apparently random, but then becoming more purposeful and troubling. Private Lemuel Sweet, a young New Englander, chronicles the hardships he and his companions endure on their march west over the seemingly endless sands of the Sahara. Looming ahead of them is the threat of combat in a foreign land. But worse is the creeping suspicion Sweet feels that one of the men leading the expedition is not what he pretends to be, and that ancient and arcane forces are at work that could mean death for him and his fellow Marines before a single shot is fired. Death...or worse. From The Black Book of Cyrenaica: "The Marines reserve judgment about their leader. Malcolm Weston is an officer. That is all they need to know. There is work to do: before dawn, after dark. They are the ones who do it. They are a collection of strong backs and bad attitudes. They are policemen, enforcers, lackeys, brutes. They are highwaymen in government boots. The men of the Navy despise them as bullies. The Marines shrug it off. Sailors are monkeys, leather-skinned creatures of arcane skills and enforced repetition. They are ruled by superstition: curses, cauls, ghost ships glimpsed through the fog. It is no great feat to frighten a tar. Most will refuse to set sail on a Friday. They whistle to call the wind. They are handY with knives, and can consumer quantities of alcohol that defy belief. But they are better talkers than fighters. It has been proven."