Showing results by publisher "Penmore Press LLC" in Historical Fiction

The year is 1840. Twenty-three years ago, Horatio Lord Hornblower was governor of the island of St. Helena and hailer to its only prisoner, Napoleon Bonaparte. First mutual respect, and later shared tragedy, forged a clandestine friendship between the two men. Now King Louis Philippe of France has requested that the remains of the late emperor be returned, and Queen Victoria has granted that request. The French have also requested that the former-Governor Lord Hornblower attend the exhumation as the official British representative.

After gaining valuable experience as an aide to Governor Lord Horatio Hornblower, William Brewer is rewarded with a posting as first lieutenant on the frigate HMS Defiant, bound for American waters. Early in their travels, it seems as though Brewer’s greatest challenge will be evading the wrath of a tyrannical captain who has taken an active dislike to him. But when a hurricane sweeps away the captain, the young lieutenant is forced to assume command of the damaged ship, and a crew suffering from low morale.

There is a new threat in the Caribbean–a pirate named Black Rose has created a panic among merchant sailors. The attacks are becoming increasingly violent and deadly, and the pirate always leaves a calling card to claim responsibility: a single black rose on a victim’s body.

It is said that a man is grown by his past, and so it was with William Brewer. Before he took command of HMS Defiant in a hurricane and before he hunted pirates in HMS Revenge, Brewer endured a crucible of fire that molded him into the legend he became. Fresh from the tutelage of Napoleon Bonaparte on St. Helena, Brewer signs on for a cruise under Captain Bush in HMS Lydia to the Mediterranean to battle the Barbary Pirates.

Newly returned from the Battle of the Nile, Alexander Clay and the crew of the Titan are soon in action again, just when he has the strongest reason to wish to abide in England. But a powerful French naval squadron is at large in the Indian Ocean, attacking Britain’s vital East India trade.

In 1798, the British Royal Navy withdrew from the Mediterranean to combat the threat of invasion at home. In their absence, rumors abound of a French Army gathering in the south of France under General Napoleon Bonaparte, and of a large fleet gathering to transport them. Alexander Clay and his ship, Titan, are sent to the Mediterranean to investigate. Clay verifies the troubling rumors but is unable to learn where the French fleet and the army will be heading.

It is 1535, and in the tumultuous years of King Henry VIII’s break from Rome, the religious houses of England are being seized by force. Twenty-year-old Catherine Havens is a foundling and the adopted daughter of the prioress of the Priory of Mount Grace in a small Yorkshire village.

Talon de Gilles, son of a Christian knight of Jerusalem during the time of the Crusades, is only 13 when ferocious Saracens attack his family's caravan and take him captive. Instead of selling him into slavery, or ransoming him, his captors impose a dire fate upon the boy, forcing Talon to become one of them, an Assassin of the Ismaili, the most feared and hated sect in all of Persia, and beyond.

Death limits a man’s future opportunities, but for Royal Marine Major Thomas Pennywhistle, death expands them. After a near-death experience, he sees the world with enlightened eyes and enhanced perceptions. He will need them, because he has a code to break, a murder to solve, and spies to outfox. He will be entering a world of international intrigue, confronting a conspiracy to undermine the British monarchy. His capacity for guile, quick thinking, and decisive action have served him well in combat; now he will exercise his talents in the arena of politics.

A joyous homecoming turns into a nightmare, as a trained assassin must do the one thing he didn't want to do -become an assassin again. Talon, a young Frank, returns to France with his uncle Phillip, a Templar knight, to be reunited with his family who lost him to the Assassins of Alamut when he was just a boy. When he arrives, he finds a sinister threat hanging like a pall over the joyous reunion. Ruthless enemies, who will stop at nothing to destroy his entire family to achieve their ends, are challenging the inheritance of his father.

On a stormy night in March 1941, Maisie Rose Hawkins leaves her drunk husband, Stan, out in the rain - and he disappears. Detective Sergeant Bob Robbins and young PC Laurie Oliver are called out to investigate and discover that Stan’s small fishing boat is gone, the rope sawn through. As Bob searches for answers, it becomes apparent that in this small Cornish village where everyone knows everything about everybody, nobody quite knows the truth.

Chivalry comes naturally to Royal Marine captain Thomas Pennywhistle, but in the savage Peninsular War, it's a luxury he can ill afford. Trapped behind enemy lines with vital dispatches for Lord Wellington, Pennywhistle violates orders when he saves a beautiful stranger, setting off a sequence of events that jeopardize his mission.

After returning the heads of assassins to the Master of Hashashini, Talon flees with his family and closest companions to the Kingdom of Jerusalem to escape retribution. But death and disaster follow them, dashing hopes of finding a safe haven. Talon and Max travel to Cyprus only to discover that it is ruled by a psychopathic tyrant. The self-styled emperor Isaac Komnenos captured the island earlier in the year with the help of mercenaries and is plundering his kingdom into destitution.

Talon is returning to the Holy Land to search for his beloved Ravan, but Fate has other plans for him. When his ship is wrecked off the coast of North Africa in a storm, Talon and Max, his sole surviving companion, escape captivity and the threat of execution, only to risk their lives preventing a massacre. Barely surviving the ambush they interrupted, they find themselves in the care of a wealthy Egyptian family in a region known as the Fayoum.

It’s midwinter in 1539, and Catherine Havens Overton has just given birth to her second child, a daughter. The convent in which she was raised is now part of the Overton lands, and Catherine’s husband William owns the properties that once belonged to her mother’s family. With a son, Robert, and her new daughter, Veronica, Catherine’s life as the mistress of a great household should be complete.

In May 1862, Robert Smalls, a slave and ship’s pilot in Charleston, South Carolina, crafts a daring plan to steal the steamship Planter and deliver it, along with, the crew and their families to the Union blockade. After risking his life to escape slavery, Robert faces an even more difficult challenge: convincing Abraham Lincoln to enlist black troops.

Talon has returned to Acre, the Crusader port, after more than a year in Byzantium. He is now a rich man, the owner of ships and in possession of a license to play the merchant within the Empire to the north. However, riches bring enemies and his past is about to catch up with him as accusations of witchcraft have followed him from Languedoc. An investigation is about to disrupt his life but then everything is changed when he travels to a small fort with Sir Guy de Veres, his Templar mentor.

Imprisoned for brawling in Acre, a coastal city in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, Talon and his longtime friend Max are freed by an old mentor from the Order of the Templars and offered a new mission in the fabled city of Constantinople. There Talon finds that winning the emperor's favor obligates him to go to war to free Byzantine lands from the Seljuk Turks.

Young Midshipman Duncan Graham is anxious to get ahead in the British Navy, but has many hurdles to overcome. Without any familial privileges to smooth his way, he can only advance through merit. The fires of war prove his mettle, but during an expedition to obtain desperately needed fresh water - and an illegal duel - a French patrol drives off the boats, and Graham is left stranded on shore.

Talon stared wide-eyed at the devices, awed that they could make such an overwhelming, head-splitting noise. His ears rang and his eyes were burning from the drifting smoke that carried with it an evil stink. “That will show the bastards,” Hsü told him with one of his rare smiles. “The General calls his weapons ‘the Dragon’s breath.’ They certainly stink like it.” Talon, an assassin turned knight turned merchant, is restless. Enticed by tales of lucrative trade, he sets sail for the coasts of Africa and India.