"The Rappahannock Line continues the story of Irish immigrant Daniel Ryan who serves in Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. As the year 1862 draws to its close, the powerful Union army gathers its strength on the Rappahannock River in Virginia to renew its advance on the Confederate capital. Lee's army confronts it there bringing on a further bloody collision. Ryan and his comrades endure the Winter that follows the brutal battle of Fredericksburg, as the Confederate army suffers critical supply shortages, while, across the river, the enemy, under a new commander, reorganises and strengthens itself again for the Spring resumption of campaigning, which will test the skills of General Lee and the courage and resolve of his outnumbered soldiers as never before."
"It is early 1854 and war looms with Tsarist Russia. James Rutherford and his ship Spartan are transferred to Royal Navy service and given a role patrolling Oriental waters in search of a powerful enemy warship which seeks to prey upon allied shipping. Reluctant to be confined to such tedium, Rutherford adopts a more proactive approach but this will lead to grave risks for Spartan’s crew.
********
Martin Hicks lives in Fraserburgh in Scotland and began writing after a career in education. The Renegade is his sixteenth book and the fourth Spartan story. He is currently working on a fifth title."
"It is the autumn of 1852 and the British warship Spartan, commanded by James Rutherford, continues her mission for the East India Company, to destroy a criminal consortium led by the Scorpion, a Chinese criminal named Liang Ziu, who controls an alliance of ruthless pirates, complicit local rulers and corrupt western traders.
Attack is followed by counter-attack, including an attempt on Rutherford’s own life, with treachery, extending to the higher echelons of the company, an additional threat, as the hunt for the Scorpion and his allies ranges across the Far Eastern Seas.
Martin Hicks lives in Fraserburgh in Scotland and began writing after a career in education. “The Trail of the Scorpion,” his fourteenth book, is the sequel to “An Independent Command” and the second episode of the “Spartan” story. He is currently at work on a further title in the series."
"It is the autumn of 1864 and the Confederate raider Palmetto is in Far Eastern waters, where an encounter with Malay pirates and an attack by hostile islanders have left her seriously undermanned.
Thomas Grover, Palmetto’s captain, must continue to elude the US warships hunting for his ship, while somehow finding a way of recruiting replacements for his crew. Failure to accomplish this will compel him to undertake a hazardous, return voyage to the American coast, where the overwhelming strength of the US blockading fleet awaits his beleaguered vessel.
About the Author:
Martin Hicks lives in Fraserburgh, in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. He began writing after a career in education and “The Turn of Fate,” the concluding novel of the “Palmetto” series, is his twelfth book. He is currently working on a further title."
"It is the summer of 1853 and Commander James Rutherford leaves Calcutta once more to renew his campaign against organised Oriental piracy. The principal pirate leader Liang Ziu is dead, but Rutherford obtains intelligence that his criminal organisation continues to operate from a heavily fortified base, secure from conventional attack. Beset anew by intrigue and treachery, Rutherford must somehow confront and destroy this final stronghold, a task which poses difficulties and trials unlike any he has yet encountered.
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Martin Hicks lives in Fraserburgh in Aberdeenshire and began writing after a career in education. Set in the Far East, The Final Stronghold which continues the story of James Rutherford and his ship Spartan is his fifteenth book. He is currently at work on a fourth title in this series."
"It is the late summer of 1863 and the third year of the war in North America. In the wake of the defeat at Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee has returned, with his Confederate army, to Virginia. But a further crisis to the west, in the Tennessee theatre of the war, compels the general to detach a part of his army, to journey west to north Georgia in order to reinforce the beleaguered southern forces there. Daniel Ryan and his comrades of The Ogeechee Volunteer Rifles are among those making this journey, which leads them to a savage battlefield at Chickamauga Creek.
There follows a dismal season of endurance and hardship, testing, as never before, the courage and resolve of the men of the Company B, who are called upon face an ordeal of blood and death, worse than any they have yet encountered."
"It is 1861 and Thomas Grover has resigned from the US Navy to go with his native state of South Carolina which has left the Union.
For two years his career in the new Confederate Navy is tedious and unrewarding. He is posted to Britain as a naval attaché, again denied his wish for active service, until he is transferred to Liverpool where he is offered command of a new warship.
Grover must get to sea on the ship and see her armed and commissioned as CSS Palmetto, whose mission will be that of a predator, to range the oceans, seeking out and destroying American vessels wherever they are to be found."
"It is the Spring of 1864 and the Confederate raider Palmetto is off the Philippines, pursuing her campaign against US shipping. For her captain, Thomas Grover there is much to consider, for with the ship’s previously sustained engine damage not fully repaired, he learns that these seas are now patrolled by a new Union warship that vastly overmatches his own ship. As the war turns increasingly against the south, Grover must redouble his efforts against the enemy, but the hidden threats facing him are as dangerous as the known ones."
"The box, skillfully fashioned from wood and with a pattern of stars inlaid on its side, was clearly very old.
Intrigued by its age and craftsmanship, David Molloy bought it at the car boot sale in a Glasgow school playground, an acquisition that led to a series of nightmares which grew to exert an increasing influence upon relationship with his partner and his life.
It would lead him into a quest into his ancestry and, in doing, alter his understandings and attitudes forever."
"The box, skillfully fashioned from wood and with a pattern of stars inlaid on its side, was clearly very old.
Intrigued by its age and craftsmanship, David Molloy bought it at the car boot sale in a Glasgow school playground, an acquisition that led to a series of nightmares which grew to exert an increasing influence upon relationship with his partner and his life.
It would lead him into a quest into his ancestry and, in doing, alter his understandings and attitudes forever."
"Bond of Blood tells the story of two Irish brothers, each of whom makes the life-changing journey to the new world as the second half of the 19th century draws on. Thomas and Michael Casey are linked by blood, but find themselves on opposite sides of the US Civil War conflict.
Martin Hicks lives in Fraserburgh, Scotland and began writing after a career in education. He has published a series of US Civil War books, and “Bond of Blood” is his eighth title.
By the same author:
A Gathering of Soldiers
Hard Passage North
The Rappahannock Line
Mirage of Victory
The Bitterest Enemy
A Season for Killing
A Deepening Twilight"
"HARD PASSAGE NORTH continues the story of Irish immigrant Daniel Ryan, who has left his adopted Georgia home to serve in Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. It is the summer of 1862 and, following the campaign to save their capital city of Richmond, Lee and his men are moving north to confront the threat posed by the Union army of General John Pope.
The story follows the experiences of Ryan and his Ogeechee Volunteer Rifles as the campaign of Second Manassas follows its course, leading to the first invasion of Maryland and culminating in the war's bloodiest day on the banks of Antietam Creek. Ryan and his comrades experience shortage, hardship, hunger and disease as the campaign follows its course, testing the bonds of their loyalty and friendship to their farthest limits as General Lee bids for final victory."
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