In 1938 Malaya, Japanese intelligence officers and pro-Independence Indians conspire to test their suspicions about British intelligence officer Philip Rance by attempting to burgle his office. The plot is foiled by Rances teenage son, Jason, who must move to England to escape revenge. Singapore and Malaya fall to the Japanese and captured Indian POWs are enlisted in the anti-British Indian National Army under Subhas Chandra Bose. All four unsuccessful burglars are involved: one re-enters India by submarine, two by parachute and the fourth is sent to fight against British forces in Burma. Having been commissioned in India, the young Jason Rance now serves in a Gurkha battalion. Detailed to teach the Chinese army in India about Bren guns before being attached to a Nepalese unit for sniper work, he finds himself unwittingly involved against all four renegades who try to kill him. Based on historical fact and the authors personal knowledge, Operation Black Rose is the first in a series of books involving Gurkha military units that may be read in any order and includes Operation Janus, Operation Blind Spot, Operation Stealth and Operation Four Rings. The author, JP Cross, a retired Gurkha colonel, draws on real characters and events he witnessed across various theatres of war.
