"Nick Turnhouse is now a senior captain, some two thirds of the way up the List, perhaps as little as five years short of automatic promotion to Rear Admiral. As such, he must accept more responsibility, and he will be expected to offer more than blind obedience to his orders. It is time to replace Bloody Nick with Sir Nicholas.
Bonaparte is committing the error of trying to place his brother on the throne of Spain, currently occupied by a madman and his erratic queen.
The Spanish are divided into at least four different factions nationally, and a dozen more in each separate province.
Sir Nicholas sails out to the Mediterranean to offer assistance to those Spaniards who will serve British interests best.
It is not a straightforward task."
"The Royal Navy is larger than it has ever been—nearly eight hundred ships and one hundred and twenty thousand men—and it is too small for the tasks demanded of it if the war is to be won.
British hardwood forests have been destroyed, with the exception of the untouchable New Forest. It is impossible to build enough ships to make up for losses, let alone to expand. At least twenty of the ships at sea are unfit for service, may well sink in the next storm.
The sole answer is to find an ally with a large fleet, or to capture the ships required, which is easier said than done.
Denmark has a large ocean-going fleet, but is neutral and terrified of France. Nick Turnhouse is tasked to find a way of taking the Danish fleet, laid up in Copenhagen, intact and immediately usable.
There is a way—provided he and the government of the day are prepared to sacrifice honor and decency. Perfidious Albion may yet prevail."
"Bloody Nick Turnhouse has returned from Mauritius to Bombay, where he is welcomed with orders received from London by the overland route. He is to frighten the Spanish by showing himself in a powerful ship of war off Manila and then along the Pacific coast of South America, lands which have not seen an enemy in a generation.
Unfortunately, the expected ration carrier has failed to arrive and is presumed lost and there are no barrels of beef and bags of biscuit to fill his depleted hold.
Nick sets off on a year-long voyage with less than six months of stores to hand. He has to scavenge food that his conservative crew will eat, from lands that do not grow wheat and where the beef cow is a rarity. The best hope, he suspects, must be to capture Spanish ships and garrisons and rob them of their rations.
He makes sure that the spirits room is stacked high with rum."
"The short-lived Peace of Amiens is over. Entered into in bad faith, the Peace has provided both sides with the chance to take a breath and restock their arsenals.
Sir Nicholas Turnhouse, Bloody Nick, has recovered from his wound and is ready to go to sea again, supported by his lady. Only at sea will he be able to achieve the promotion in rank and honors that both believe to be his due. He is given Hawke, 44, again and sets out for the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to tidy up the remnants of Napoleon's Army of Egypt, if they should exist, and to make a general nuisance of himself around the Mauritius.
It is a long way from home, and the new happiness he has created for himself. It is back at sea, where he truly belongs. He sets sail, torn between domesticity and adventure, and wondering if he has taken the wiser choice."
"A great leader rises when forced to defend his troubled lands against an onslaught of monsters in the second book of this remarkable fantasy series featuring Gerin the Fox
Peace in the North has been fragile and tentative in the five years since the terrible Werenight, when the light of four full moons transformed men into beasts. Now cut off completely from the Elabon Empire, the land is in violent dispute, squabbled over by minor barons hungry for greater power. Gerin the Fox is one of the few who stand firm against the encroaching chaos, but his own life has been violently shaken, first by a heartless betrayal and then by the kidnapping of his young son. Having angered a vengeful deity, he cannot look to the gods for support. Yet it is Gerin to whom the people must turn when an earthquake tears their land open, undoing an ancient warding spell and releasing a host of ravaging beasts from the dark underground.
The stunning sequel to Werenight, Hugo Award–winning author Harry Turtledove's Prince of the North is a magnificent work of fantasy fiction. The master builder of wondrous worlds and alternate histories works his literary sorcery once again in this richly imagined tale of war, magic, gods, and monsters."
"A young, untried Northern baron must somehow defend his vulnerable realm from an invading force strengthened by darkest magic in this magnificent fantasy adventure from a master world builder
The second son of the Baron of Fox Keep, Gerin never wanted title or responsibility, but both were thrust on him when his father and brother were ambushed and slain by enemy Trokmê raiders. Leaving behind the urban bustle of Cassat and his studies in philosophy and magic, Gerin the Fox returned home to accept his place among the other barons of the Northern marches—a region secluded from the rest of the Empire of Elabon. But now word is spreading that the Trokmê are returning, led by a powerful new wizard whose magic makes them unstoppable. Keeping his lands and people safe may prove beyond the young lord's capabilities. Only one choice remains for the Fox: He must set out into the wild and make his way back to the city—for only there can he hope to find a new form of sorcery with which to fight the coming of the Werenight, when men will become monsters.
Before Hugo Award winner Harry Turtledove became known far and wide as the king of alternate history, he introduced himself to the world with Werenight, carrying readers into a remarkable realm of war and magic."
"Captain Turnhouse RN—Bloody Nick—is still in the Mediterranean, nursing his experimental frigate and enjoying the mixed blessings of being favored by Old Jervie, a hard but just taskmaster.
The French are still reeling from the shock of the Battle of the Nile, the Ottoman Empire is hastening into decline, the Spanish are in their customary disarray, and the Barbary Rovers are enjoying a resurgence. The Mediterranean is in a state of chaos—ideal for a predatory young captain, even if at first in an unreliable ship.
Bloody Nick makes his somewhat erratic way from the coast off Barcelona to the Siege of Acre and the equally erratic Sidney Smith, touching the shores of Egypt and Malta en route before being brought up short off Venice. In process, he adds a little to his store of prize money and more to his reputation as a wild and often lucky captain. He also discovers there is such a thing as bad luck, that it is possible to take too many chances."
"Captain Nicholas Turnhouse—Bloody Nick—takes his new experimental Amphion-class heavy frigate out to the Mediterranean to join the command of Old Jervie, Lord St Vincent, immediately after the Battle of the Nile.
His ship is new and powerful . . . and sails like a pig. He must make the best of it under the command of the harshest, but possibly fairest, taskmaster in the Navy.
There are still a few rich prizes left, and any number of belligerent French and Spanish ships of war, and the Barbary Rovers are enjoying their final resurgence.
For a young captain still making his name the Mediterranean has a great deal to offer, with the ever-present possibility of losing all if he takes too great a risk.
Although he has left his beloved young wife behind, Bloody Nick is off to enjoy himself again."
"Bloody Nick Turnhouse is in fine fettle, a frigate captain and respected by those who know him. He has taken a ship twice to the Bight of Benin and survived both occasions, falling to none of the fevers. Unfortunately, this has made him one of the few naval captains with a close knowledge of the fatal shores and Their Lordships are inclined to see him as their sole expert in sailing waters that have previously only been familiar to slavers and the few Guineamen.
Returning from the Bight, Nick is currently in Spanish waters, seeking glory and prizes and uncertain which might be more important to a farm boy made good."
"Romance blossoms when Isla Crawford steps into McQuivey’s Costume Shop in London and is swept back in time to 1605, where she and Lord Bancroft attempt to thwart Guy Fawkes’s Gunpowder Plot. One moment, Isla Crawford is inside McQuivey’s Costume Shop trying on a Jacobean-style gown for the parliamentary Autumn Ball, and the next, she is standing in an unfamiliar garden, barefoot, coatless, and at the mercy of a fierce storm. Confused, she seeks refuge in a Tudor manor, where she discovers that she has inexplicably traveled back to 1605, mere weeks before the culmination of Guy Fawkes’s infamous Gunpowder Plot. Simon Hartworth, Lord Bancroft, finds his orderly seventeenth-century life disrupted when a mysterious woman appears on his sister’s doorstep during a storm. Intrigued by the stranger’s quirks and bewildering speech, he feels compelled to protect her and heed her warnings about a fatal conspiracy against Parliament. As Simon is drawn into Isla’s dangerous scheme to stop the evildoers, he can’t help but also feel drawn to her. With seemingly no way to get back home, Isla uses her twenty-first-century knowledge of the past to try to thwart Guy Fawkes and his coconspirators without altering the course of history forever. She and Simon must race to unravel the threads of the treasonous plot even as they wonder how their hearts will navigate their deepening connection and the seemingly insurmountable four centuries that separate their lives."
"Winner of Amazon KDP Select All Stars
Nick Turnhouse knows how lucky he has been, and has little choice other than to ride the wave of his good fortune, regardless of where it may take him. He has made himself into Bloody Nick and must continue to take risks and hope to survive them if he is to make his fortune at sea.
His orders base him on Gibraltar, part of a small squadron commanded by a new rear admiral who comes to value him and acts as his patron. In between missions to Africa and Barcelona, Nick is introduced to the Assistant-Governor, the senior official on the Rock, and his grown-up daughter. At just under a fathom, she's tall and outstrips most men, but Nick stands a comfortable hand taller than six feet and makes her a most welcome partner in the dance. And then at other social occasions . . ."
"England, Home and . . .
Nick Turnhouse is captain of his own sloop, and increasingly aware of how rapidly he has been promoted and how much he does not know. He is reliant on the professional skill and goodwill of Master and Boatswain, both of whom are long experienced and old, coming close to the end of their seagoing days.
Returning from a convoy north to Halifax, Nick discovers a new admiral in command at English Harbor. His patron has returned to England and he is left as a junior captain in a station in which the new man has his own favorites.
Nick is sent as escort to a small out-of-season convoy, taking valuable ships to England . . . with a certainty that French intelligencers are in the know."
