Blood Pact (Gaunt's Ghosts Series) Book

Yet again Dan Abnett knocks one out of the park with his excellent 'Gaunt's Ghost's' series.
Blood Pact is a little something different than the rest of the books in the series. There are no epic battles, no massive tank/armor clashes, no titan battles, no dogfights, no siege lines. Instead the Ghost's are kicking their heels on Balhaut, the scene of Gaunt's first major success back when he was in Commissar with the Hyrkans. Unbeknownst to any of them, especially after two years of doing jack all except getting fat, lazy and bored (I love Tona Criid's obsession with pastry's and desserts which prompted her to start a jogging/running routine that would make most Marines cry), the Archenemy has sent a special forces group of their own to kill a very special prisoner held by Imperial forces on world.
What follows is a fun romp where Gaunt and a group of Ghosts have to protect the prisoner from the frighteningly effective Chaos special forces troops (loyal to Khorne, they are from the Blood Pact after all, hence the books title) while another under Major Rawne are fighting for their lives following a supremely hilarious early incident that involved a theft from a gambling institution that landed many of them (Rawne included) in the brig. All due to Rawne being 'really fething bored'. All of then come together in the end as well as a team under the personal command of an Inquisitor of His Most Holy Majesty's Holy Ordo's.
Blood Pact is a hell of a great, fun read and the ending absolutely floored me. Without giving anything away there is a character by the name of Jaume who make s a living by fabricating memorials for deceased members of the Imperial military to be given to their families. His father was a junior officer in the Balhaut PDF when the Crusade secured the world from the Chaos forces. Gaunt never lets Jaume on that he remembers Jaume's father. The epilogue is such a touching scene where Gaunt is simply remembering the horror that was the fighting for Balhaut. As he is sheltering under cover from the furious onslaught of incoming Chaos fire he turns to a junior PDF officer and together they lead the charge that breaks the Chaos resistance. The Junior Officers name is Jaume-it's little touches like that Abnett fills his books with that hit me and many other readers on an emotional level. Gaunt was correct when he told Jaume's son cryptically 'your father died a hero'. Indeed.