The past pressed on him so that he felt he must fall to his knees. If he could just tell Valsin all that had happened-then the younger man might understand and redeem them both.

One violent act draws together three very different people in Alan Bray's haunting debut, The Hour of Parade.

The year is 1806, and Russian cavalry officer Alexi Ruzhensky journeys to Munich to kill the man responsible for murdering his brother in a duel, French officer Louis Valsin. Already thwarted once at the Battle of Austerlitz by Valsin's lover, Anne-Marie, Alexi has been told by his father not to fail again.

Obsessed by the main character in Jean-Jacques Rousseau's novel Julie, Alexi becomes romantically entangled with a beautiful and passionate young Bavarian woman.

He hides his true identity and befriends Valsin and Anne-Marie, only to find that he has no thirst for blood. As the three grow closer, tensions mount as Alexi and Anne-Marie desperately try to resist their growing attraction.

But as the novel comes to its explosive conclusion, Alexi will learn that revenge cannot be forgotten so easily.