Category: Historical fiction

For King and Country

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For King and Country
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FROM THE HEART OF BELFAST
COMES A TERRORIST THREAT
THAT SPELLS DOOM FOR BRITAIN’S
ONCE AND FUTURE KING . . .
AND THE REST OF US AS WELL

What SAS Captain Trevor Stirling doesn’t know may kill him—along with every man, woman, and child alive. Stirling thinks his mission is simple: follow a terrorist into the year AD 500 to stop a Northern Irish fanatic bent on murder. If the terrorist succeeds in killing Artorius, the Briton Lord of Battle and the most revered icon of British history, before his greatest military victory, the time-space continuum will fracture, destroying the British nation. And, coincidentally, the rest of the world.

In a tale where no one is ever quite who or what they seem, hidden enemies and unexpected allies play out a drama of 21st-century terrorism against the backdrop of Arthurian Britain at its darkest hour. One man, alone in time, struggling to save an entire universe from extinction, must choose between duty to his mission and the growing conviction that he should forsake everything he holds dear to follow a higher duty—to risk it All,

The Unknown Shore

The Unknown Shore
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Inspired by the Wager disaster, The Unknown Shore is an immediate precursor to Patrick O’Brian’s acclaimed Aubrey/Maturin series that displays all the splendid prose and attention to detail that delight O’Brian’s millions of fans.

Patrick O’Brian’s first novel about the sea, The Golden Ocean, took inspiration from Commodore George Anson’s fateful circumnavigation of the globe in 1740. In The Unknown Shore, O’Brian returns to this rich source and mines it brilliantly for another, quite different tale of exploration and adventure.

The Wager was parted from Anson’s squadron in the fierce storms off Cape Horn and struggled alone up the coast of Chile until she was driven against the rocks and sank. The survivors were soon involved in trouble of every kind. A surplus of rum, a disappearing stock of food, and a hard, detested captain soon drove them into drunkenness, mutiny, and bloodshed. After many months of privation, a handful of men made their way northward under the guidance of a band of Indians, at last finding safety in Valparaiso.

This saga of survival is the background to the adventures of two young men aboard the Wager: midshipman Jack Byron and his friend Tobias Barrow, an alarmingly naive surgeon’s mate. Patrick O’Brian’s many devoted readers will take particular interest in this story, as Jack and Toby form a kind of blueprint for Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, the famed heroes of the great Aubrey/Maturin series to come.

The Captain’s Nephew (The Alexander Clay Series Book 1)

The Captain's Nephew
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The Royal Navy battles to protect England’s coastline with its ships of oak.

After a century of war, revolutions, and Imperial conquests, 1790s Britain is still embroiled in a battle for control of the sea and of colonies, with France, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, the leading contender.

Tall ships navigate familiar and foreign waters, and ambitious young men without rank or status seek their futures in Naval commands.

First Lieutenant Alexander Clay of HMS Agrius is self-made, clever, and ready for the new age. But the old world, dominated by patronage, retains a tight hold on advancement. Though Clay has proven himself many times over, Captain Percy Follett is determined to ignore his obvious talents and promote his own nephew.

Before Clay finds a way to receive due credit for his exploits, he’ll first need to survive them.

Ill-conceived expeditions ashore, hunts for privateers in treacherous fog, and a desperate chase across the Atlantic are only some of the challenges he faces. He brings his ship and crew through a series of adventures stretching from the bleak coast of Flanders to the warm waters of the Caribbean.

Only then might high society recognize his achievements—and allow him to ask for the hand of Lydia Browning, the woman who loves him regardless of his station.

The Shores of Tripoli: Lieutenant Putnam and the Barbary Pirates (A Bliven Putnam Naval Adventure Book 1)

The Shores of Tripoli: Lieutenant Putnam and the Barbary Pirates (A Bliven Putnam Naval Adventure Book 1)
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The first novel in award-winning historian James L. Haley’s brilliant adventure series featuring young midshipman Bliven Putnam as he begins his naval service aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise.

It is 1801 and President Thomas Jefferson has assembled a deep-water navy to fight the growing threat of piracy, as American civilians are regularly kidnapped by Islamist brigands and held for ransom, enslaved, or killed, all at their captors’ whim. The Berber States of North Africa, especially Tripoli, claimed their faith gave them the right to pillage anyone who did not submit to their religion.

Young Bliven Putnam, great-nephew of Revolutionary War hero Israel Putnam, is bound for the Mediterranean and a desperate battle with the pirate ship Tripoli. He later returns under legendary Commodore Edward Preble on the Constitution, and marches across the Libyan desert with General Eaton to assault Derna—discovering the lessons he learns about war, and life, are not what he expected.

Rich with historical detail and cracking with high-wire action, The Shores of Tripoli brings this amazing period in American history to life with brilliant clarity.

Under Enemy Colors (A Charles Hayden Novel Book 1)

Under Enemy Colors (A Charles Hayden Novel Book 1)
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Born to an English father and a French mother, lieutenant Charles Saunders Hayden?s career is damned by his ?mixed? heritage. Assigned to the HMS Themis, an aging frigate under the command of a captain reviled by his crew for both his brutality towards his men and his cowardice in battle, Hayden is torn between honor and duty, as the British navy engages the French in a centuries-old struggle for power.

Sails on the Horizon: A Novel of the Napoleonic Wars

Sails on the Horizon: A Novel of the Napoleonic Wars
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The year is 1797. Napoleon Buonaparte is racking up impressive wins in the field against the enemies of revolutionary France, while on the seas England is putting up a staunch resistance. Twenty-five-year-old Charles Edgemont is second lieutenant aboard the British ship Argonaut. When orders come for the Argonaut to engage in an all-but-suicidal maneuver to prevent the escape of Spanish ships off the coast of Portugal, he leads his gun crews bravely—until the deaths of the captain and first lieutenant elevate him to commander.

For refusing to yield to enemy fire, Charles is permanently promoted and generously rewarded by the Admiralty, becoming wealthy beyond his wildest dreams. Yet upon his return home, his newfound riches prove no help when it comes to winning the heart of Penelope Brown, who regards war as sinful and soldiers as little better than murderers. Changing Penelope’s mind may just be the hardest battle Charles has ever fought—at least until fresh orders send him back to sea, where he faces a formidable adversary in a series of stirring battles of will and might.

“Well executed . . . demonstrating Worrall’s expertise in ship and sea warfare history . . . Readers will root for [Charles Edgemont]. . . . He handily defeats veteran seamen, takes enormous chances and is always rewarded.”—Publishers Weekly

The King’s Coat: An Alan Lewrie Naval Adventure (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures)

The King's Coat: An Alan Lewrie Naval Adventure (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures)
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THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE CLASSIC SERIES OF ALAN LEWRIE NAVAL ADVENTURES

1780: Seventeen-year-old Alan Lewrie is a brash, rebellious young libertine. So much so that his callous father believes a bit of navy discipline will turn the boy around. Fresh aboard the tall-masted Ariadne, Midshipman Lewrie heads for the war-torn Americas, finding–rather unexpectedly–that he is a born sailor, equally at home with the randy pleasures of the port and the raging battles on the high seas. But in a hail of cannonballs comes a bawdy surprise…

The King’s Coat introduces us to Alan Lewrie, hero of Dewey Lambdin’s acclaimed series of naval adventures, which have often been compared to those by C.S. Forester and Patrick O’Brian.

A Certain Threat (The Merriman Chronicles Book 1)

A Certain Threat (The Merriman Chronicles Book 1)
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The Year 1792. With French Revolutionary agents travelling freely but secretly between Ireland and England and war with France inevitable, the English government of Mr. Pitt is desperately anxious to uncover any plots between Irish rebels and the French.

Lieutenant James Merriman with his ship, the sloop Aphrodite, is ordered to the Irish Sea to assist the principal Treasury agent Mr. Grahame in this work. Merriman is plunged headlong into the world of espionage and when Grahame is seriously wounded it falls to Merriman to carry on the investigation.

Young James Merriman must keep all his wits about him to foil these plans especially when his adversary is revealed to be an exceptional French agent Henri Moreau who hopes that by helping the Irish to throw off the English yoke, France will be able to use Irish ports from which to attack England.

Cain at Gettysburg (The Battle Hymn Cycle)

Cain at Gettysburg (The Battle Hymn Cycle)
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Winner of the American Library Association’s W. Y. Boyd Award for Excellence in Military Fiction

Two mighty armies blunder toward each other, one led by confident, beloved Robert E. Lee and the other by dour George Meade. They’ll meet in a Pennsylvania crossroads town where no one planned to fight.

In this sweeping, savagely realistic novel, the greatest battle ever fought on American soil explodes into life at Gettysburg. As generals squabble, staffs err. Tragedy unfolds for immigrants in blue and barefoot Rebels alike. The fate of our nation will be decided in a few square miles of fields.

Following a tough Confederate sergeant from the Blue Ridge, a bitter Irish survivor of the Great Famine, a German political refugee, and gun crews in blue and gray, Cain at Gettysburg is as grand in scale as its depictions of combat are unflinching.

For three days, battle rages. Through it all, James Longstreet is haunted by a vision of war that leads to a fateful feud with Robert E. Lee. Scheming Dan Sickles nearly destroys his own army. Gallant John Reynolds and obstreperous Win Hancock, fiery William Barksdale and dashing James Johnston Pettigrew, gallop toward their fates….

There are no marble statues on this battlefield, only men of flesh and blood, imperfect and courageous. From New York Times bestselling author and former U.S. Army officer Ralph Peters, Cain at Gettysburg is bound to become a classic of men at war.

Germanica

Germanica
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Best-selling alternate history master Robert Conroy returns to World War II, this time for a dangerous last stand of the Nazis in the heart of the Alps.

GERMANICA, ÜBER ALLES!

Deep in the heart of Europe’s Alps in the redoubt called Germanica, Nazi propaganda master Josef Goebbels and a battalion of Nazi zealots hold out against a frantic final Allied push to end World War II. With Churchill losing his election, De Gaulle consolidating his rule over a newly liberated France, and Stalin asserting his own nefarious land-grab in Eastern Germany, only America, led by its untried new president Harry Truman, remains to face the toughest of Nazi warriors as they hunker down for a bitter fight to the last man.

Goebbels knows that if he can hold out just a bit longer, the war weary of the Western nations will back away from unconditional surrender for Germany, and he and his zealots can remain in power never to answer for their war crimes, and able to prepare for the moment when their hateful Nazi ideology is ready once again to rise from its alpine grave and strike at the heart of humanity!

But there are Americans and a few stalwart Europeans just as determined to put a final stake in the Nazi heart. It is now up to heroes in the making such as newly minted O.S.S. operative Ernie Janek, commando Captain Scott Tanner, and formerly enslaved Czech “Jew” Lena Bobek, to bring down the dark Nazi menace growing like a cancer in the mountainous heart of the continent.

About Germanica:
“[A] new and intriguing novel that takes the final days of the Third Reich as its jumping-off point. . . . Conroy captures the intricacies of WWII with an eye for historical nuance, and he crafts a believable alternate ending to the war. . . . [T]he story is buoyed by Conroy’s effective snapshot of the era.”—Publishers Weekly

About Robert Conroy’s Rising Sun:
“Conroy extrapolates a new and militarily plausible direction for WWII . . . A thrilling adventure.”—Booklist