THE BOOKS
The Edge of Hell
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ISBN: 978-1-7350506-1-4 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-1-7350506-0-7 (e-book)
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Thirteen thousand Union soldiers will lose their lives at Andersonville prison. James Keenan is determined Nate Calhoun will not be one of them.
James and Nate have nothing more in common than their rural hometown. In Burr Oak, class distinction and petty jealousies pit the two young men against each other. Their combative relationship carries over into the ranks of the Eleventh Michigan Infantry, where Nate struggles to live up to the reputation left behind by his brother, and James contends with an abusive sergeant, Robert Langdon. Once a preacher in Burr Oak, Langdon seeks retribution for James’s part in his fall from grace.
The bloody battles of Chickamauga and Chattanooga wipe away past differences and forge a deep bond between James and Nate. As Sherman’s armies march inexorably toward Atlanta, Nate’s capture puts that bond to the test. Determined to rescue his friend from notorious Andersonville prison, James risks desertion to embark on a dangerous journey through the wilderness of war-torn Georgia, pursued by Langdon, bent on revenge.
The Edge of Hell tells the story of the rank and file from small-town America—farmers and shop-owners who made up the nucleus of the Federal army and, through extraordinary valor, preserved the Union.
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The Driver's Wife
A companion novel to the Jack Mallory Chronicles
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ISBN: 978-0-9906774-8-2 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-9906774-9-9 (ebook)
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A story of redemption and unconventional love.
Leighlin Plantation offers Edward Ketch a new life, an opportunity to forsake his violent, troubled past and become a man worthy of respect and trust. But when a slave named Isabelle arrives, Ketch is drawn into a turbulent relationship that threatens the very peace he has struggled to attain.
Isabelle has her own desires for a fresh start, but scurrilous gossip about her past undermines those hopes. She struggles to be accepted by Leighlin’s other slaves and hopes marriage to a popular man will aid her cause. But her situation worsens when her husband becomes abusive. She discovers, however, one unlikely ally—Ketch, who is as much an outcast among Leighlin’s white population as she is among her people.
A stranger to love, Ketch cannot recognize the true feelings that draw him to Isabelle. To rescue her from the dangers of her marriage, he risks losing not only his position at Leighlin but the affections of the woman he strives to save.
Set against the backdrop of 17th century Carolina, The Driver’s Wife explores the lives and relationships, from Big House to slave settlement, of those who labored upon the wilderness plantations near Charles Town. Rice cultivation and the task system of slavery provide a much different landscape from the aristocratic Old South of cotton plantations and gang labor familiar to most modern-day readers. The Driver’s Wife is a tale of the transcendent power of love.
THE FORTUNE
Book 3 of the Jack Mallory Chronicles
ISBN: 978-0-9906774-0-6 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-0-9906774-1-3 (ebook)
A deal with the devil…
Jack Mallory has vowed to abandon his nefarious seafaring life to be with the woman he loves, but his final act of piracy leaves him facing the noose. His one chance at freedom: a deal with an old enemy, Ezra Archer, a wealthy Charles Town planter.
Archer has his sights set on increasing his lands and securing a seat on the Carolina Assembly—and he will destroy anyone in his way. At first, Jack’s pact with the ruthless planter seems benign—sail to Virginia to fetch Archer’s niece. Yet soon he discovers Archer’s plans for the girl are anything but honorable and could endanger his own future, a future that seems increasingly bleak when faced with Archer’s next, murderous task.
With time running out and innocent lives hanging in the balance, Jack must find a way to break his deal with the devil or forever forfeit the honest life he had hoped to reclaim for himself and his family.
The Alliance
Book 2 of the Jack Mallory Chronicles
ISBN-13-978-1493750276 (paperback)
Also available in e-book format
Two pirates; sworn enemies. An alliance forged by blood…
Jack Mallory sailed into Carolina waters seeking vengeance upon fellow pirate James Logan, the man responsible for his father’s murder and his mother’s kidnapping. But Jack never expected his well-laid plans to be foiled by a mere child: Logan’s precocious six-year-old daughter, Helen. A deathbed promise to her mother inexorably binds Jack to the child and robs him—at least temporarily—of his revenge against her father.
But the two pirates’ tenuous truce will be tested when a mysterious privateer sets sail to end Logan’s devastation of Carolina’s lucrative sea trade. Will Jack choose to save Helen’s father or will he ally with the privateer to at last see justice served for Logan’s crimes against his own parents?
The Prodigal
Book 1 of the Jack Mallory Chronicles
ISBN: 978-0-9906774-7-5 (paperback)
ISBN: 978-9906774-6-8 (e-book)
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A story of relentless pursuit, betrayal, and revenge:
As a young boy Jack Mallory knows horror and desolation when James Logan and his pirates murder his father and abduct his mother. Falsely accused of piracy himself, Jack is thrown into jail. He survives seven years in London’s notorious Newgate prison and emerges a hardened man seeking revenge.
His obsession with finding his mother’s kidnapper drives him to the West Indies where he becomes entangled with a fiery young woman named Maria Cordero. With a score of her own to settle with James Logan, she disguises her gender and blackmails Jack into taking her aboard his pirate brig, Prodigal, in his desperate search for Logan. Their tumultuous relationship simmers while Jack formulates a daring plan to rescue his mother and exact revenge upon Logan for destroying his family. But Logan has no intentions of losing what he now treasures more than life itself…Jack’s mother, Ella.