James L. Nelson

Based on the real-life female pirates of the West Indies, this novel of swashbuckling on the high seas in the eighteenth century finds adventure-seeking Anne Bonny teaming up with Calico Jack Rackham to raise the skull and crossbones over the Caribbean. Original.

The Short and Merry Lives of Anne Bonny, Mary Read, and Calico Jack Rackam

The Only Life That Mattered

A dramatic account of the early Revolutionary War battle cites its historical significance and symbolism while revealing the ways it which it set the stage for the rest of the war. 20,000 first printing.

The Battle of Bunker Hill and the Beginning of the American Revolution

With Fire and Sword

852 A.D. For centuries, the Vikings have swept out of the Norse countries and fallen on England, Ireland, whatever lands they could reach aboard their longships, and few could resist the power of their violent onslaught. They came at first to plunder, and then to settle, an encroachment fiercely resisted where ever they went. Such was the case in the southern lands of Ireland. En route to the Viking longphort there, known as Dubh-Linn, Thorgrim Night Wolf and Ornolf the Restless stumble across an Irish ship that carries aboard it a single item - a crown. The Vikings eagerly snatch the prize, unaware of its significance to the people of Ireland and the power granted to the king who wears it. Soon the Norsemen are plunged into the violence and intrigue of Medieval Ireland, where local kings fight with each other and with the invaders from the north for rule of the island nation. With enemies at every hand, and loyalties as fickle as the weather, Thorgrim must lead his men, the white invaders, the Fin Gall, in the fight of their lives, with both Irish and Dane eager to see them dead.

A Novel of Viking Age Ireland

Fin Gall

Fed up with an outlaw existence, Calico Jack Rackam swears off the pirate life, until he meets Anne Bonny, a woman who would as soon stab a man as give him a good tumble—that is, unless he's a pirate. Soon Jack finds himself out on the high seas, with Anne by his side and his men spoiling for action.

Spring has come to Ireland, where Thorgrim Night Wolf, new-made Lord of Vík-ló, and the three hundred Viking warriors under his command have suffered through a brutal winter. Despite having accomplished much during the months of cold and rain, the patience of the men has worn thin and anger and frustration threaten to tear the ships' crews apart. But just as the men are turning on one another, a local Irish lord arrives with a proposal, a plan for Irish and Norse to join together in a raid using Ireland's rivers to float their longships far inland. The plan, however, soon turns into a nightmare of massacre and betrayal, and Thorgrim and his band must fight both the surprisingly skilled commander of the local forces as well as enemies in their own camp. It's a fight in which victory or defeat will mean the difference between riches or death.

Glendalough Fair

If Lexington and Concord was the shot heard around the world, then Bunker Hill was the volley that rocked Parliament and the ministry of George III. "With Fire and Sword" reveals the dramatic story of the fight that changed the face of the Revolution.

Thorgrim Night Wolf, now somewhere on the south coast of Engla-land, may be closer to his goal of returning home than he has been since reaching Ireland years before, but he is still very, very far away. His son Harald, however, has ambitions beyond just getting home. Given command of one of the ships in the fleet, Harald sees a chance to put his courage on display, unleashing consequences that will lead Thorgrim into a fight against the powerful armies of Wessex, a fight he does not want.As Thorgrim struggles to keep his men alive, his eldest son Odd leads the resistance to King Halfdan's ruthless attempts to expand his rule over Norway. When a plan to bring Halfdan to heel goes terribly wrong, Odd alone is taken prisoner, and brutally punished as an example to those who would defy their king. But Halfdan's brutality does not cow the freemen: rather it stokes their anger into a red-hot rage that only freeing Odd and extracting further vengeance can cool.

A Novel of Viking Age England

The Midgard Serpent

Blending a seasoned mariner's expertise, a historian's attention to period detail, and a natural storyteller's gift for creating a cast of vivid characters, James L. Nelson brings to dazzling life a never-before-seen side of America's war for independence. Here is the conflict from the seaman's view, full of the sights, sounds, and sensations of the ocean - and of the thunder of cannons as the new world's freedom fighters vie for liberty.

By Force of Arms

In the late summer of 1775, General George Washington discovers that his cache of gunpowder has dwindled to a mere nine shots per man. A desperate plan is hatched - to send a ship under the command of Captain Isaac Biddlecomb to Bermuda to capture the British powder known to be there. But the plan is a trap, set by a traitor among the patriots.

The Maddest Idea

La Corona de los Tres Reinos : una saga nórdica en Irlanda

Having survived the bloody Battle of New Orleans and the loss of their ironclad Yazoo River, captain Samuel Bowater, engineer Hieronymus Taylor, and the survivors of their crew are given new orders -- take command of an ironclad warship being built in Memphis, Tennessee. Bowater and his men take passage upriver from "Mississippi" Mike Sullivan, one of the wild, undisciplined captains of the River Defense Squadron, only to find, on their arrival, that their ship is not even half built and the enemy is closing fast. Against their better judgment, Bowater and crew join forces with the mercurial Sullivan on board his ad hoc river gunship the General Page. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Confederates once again fling themselves bravely at the overwhelming power of the Yankee invaders. The deadly back-and-forth fight along the Mississippi ends at last in the massive naval battle of Memphis, and the near-suicidal attempt by the Confederates to hold back the Northern flood. Filled with wild characters and heart-pounding action, and set against the bold backdrop of the Civil War, Thieves of Mercy is a worthy successor to the W. Y. Boyd Award-winning novel Glory in the Name, the book Bernard Cornwell lauded as "by far, the best Civil War novel I've read."

A Novel of the Civil War at Sea

Thieves of Mercy

With their ill-fated raid on the monastary at Glendalough torn apart by betrayal and defeat, Thorgrim Night Wolf and his handful of survivors from the crew of Sea Hammer find themselves in desperate and tenuous straights. Stranded far from the safety of V�k-l�, surrounded by enemies, and with barely enough men to work the longship's oars, the Norsemen must make their way back through a dangerous and uncertain country. Thorgrim, however, is not interested in mere survival. His one thought, his one desire, is to take revenge on those whose treachery led to the slaughter of so many of his men. Assembling an ad hoc army of unlikely allies, Thorgrim leads his warriors to a final showdown that can end only in his enemies' death or his own.

Night Wolf

In 1777, in the midst of the darkest period of the Revolutionary War, Captain Isaac Biddlecomb battles his way up river from Philadelphia to find his ship, the Falmouth, which has fallen into the hands of deserters from Washington's army

All the Brave Fellows

It is 1777, the Year of the Hangman, and Captain Isaac Biddlecomb is bound for Philidelphia with his wife and child in the Continental brig Charlemagne. His orders are to take command of the newly built 20-gun frigate Falmouth and get her out to sea before she is taken by General Richard Howe's invading army. Unbeknownst tp Biddlecomb, the entire British fleet stands between him and the new nation's capital. Forced to run his beloved Charelmagne aground, Biddlecomb comes face-to-face with his mortal enemy, Royal Navy Lieutenant John Smeaton. Meanwhile, General Washington has yielded Philidelphia to Britain's might. As Biddlecomb and his crew battle to reach the prized Falmouth, only shipwright Malachi Foote and a ragtag band of deserters from the Continental Army stand between the vessel and the seemingly unstoppable British Army.

An Isaac Biddlecomb Novel

James Nelson

Irland, im 9. Jh.: Während sich viele seiner Männer mit dem Leben in der Fremde angefreundet haben, zieht es Thorgrim Nachtwolf zurück nach Norwegen. Doch sein Schiff ist zerstört, und Thorgrim hat keine andere Wahl, als bei einem fremden Herrn anzuheuern. Bald merkt er: Die Nordmänner sind tief verstrickt in die Machtkämpfe der irischen Regionalmächte. Ehe er sich's versieht, stecken er und sein Sohn mitten im Kampf um den Thron von Tara. In einem Kampf, der sie auf die Probe stellen wird wie keiner zuvor ...

Historischer Roman

Die Wikinger - Der Thron von Tara

Wenn der eigene Sohn zur Geisel wird ... Irland, im 9. Jahrhundert. Ohne Segel und Ruder sind Thorgrim und seine Wikinger mit ihren Langbooten an der südirischen Küste gestrandet. Um ihre Schiffe wieder flottmachen und heimkehren zu können, sind sie auf die Hilfe der Iren angewiesen. Die aber wissen die missliche Lage der Wikinger auszunutzen: Während Thorgrim genötigt wird, die Abtei von Ferns bei der Verteidigung zu unterstützen, ist sein Sohn Harald Starkarm in die Geiselhaft des Gegners geraten und wird von ihm zum Angriff auf die Mönche gezwungen ... Siebter, unabhängig zu lesender Band der Wikinger-Reihe um Thorgrim Nachtwolf

Die Wikinger - Der Schatz der Mönche

Irland, Mitte des 9. Jahrhunderts: Nach einem ereignislosen Winter platzen die Wikinger um Thorgrim Nachtwolf beinahe vor Tatendrang. Da kommt es gelegen, dass Thorgrim durch den irischen Stammeskönig Kevin von Glendalough erfährt, einer schlecht geschützten Abtei im Binnenland. Der Zeitpunkt ist günstig, denn der Jahrmarkt steht bevor und bringt zusätzliches Geld in den Ort. Thorgrim lässt sich auf den Raubzug ein. Doch schon auf der Fahrt über den Fluss nach Glendalough zeigt sich, dass Kevin wenig zu trauen ist ...

Die Wikinger - Der Verrat von Glendalough

Wenn Klinge auf Klinge trifft und Schwert auf Schwert, sind die tapferen Wikinger um Anführer Thorgrim Nachtwolf nicht weit! Irland, Mitte des 9. Jahrhunderts. Thorgrim und seine Wikinger frohlocken: Der friesische Kaufmann Brunhard wird mit drei Handelsschiffen von Dubh-Linn aus in See stechen. Beste Aussicht auf fette Beute! Doch der Friese transportiert keine Schätze, sondern Sklaven. Und seine Schiffe sind keine schwerfälligen Koggen, sondern schnell und wendig wie Drachenboote. Völlig unerwartet für Thorgrim kommt es zur wilden Jagd auf hoher See - zu einer Jagd, bei der aus den Jägern allzu schnell Gejagte werden ... Sechster, unabhängig zu lesender Band der Wikinger-Reihe um Thorgrim Nachtwolf

Die Wikinger - Jagd auf hoher See

Irland, Mitte des 9. Jahrhunderts: Im Kampf um die Abtei Glendalough hat Thorgrim Nachtwolf bis auf zehn Männer alles verloren. Ein vermeintlicher Freund hat ihn und seine treuen Wikinger schändlich verraten. Noch auf der Flucht schwört Thorgrim, neue Verbündete zu finden - und Rache zu üben. Tatsächlich gelingt es ihm, bei einem erneuten Überfall auf Glendalough Gold zu erbeuten. Genug, um siebzig Männer anzuwerben. Genug, um den Angriff auf den verräterischen Kevin zu wagen ...

Die Wikinger - Tod dem Verräter!

In the late summer of 1775, General George Washington discovers that his cache of gunpowder has dwindled to a mere nine shots per man. A desperate plan is hatched—to send a ship under the command of Captain Isaac Biddlecomb to Bermuda to capture the British powder known to be there. But the plan is a trap, set by a traitor among the patriots, and one from which even Biddlecomb cannot escape. Washington dispatches his aide-de-camp, Major Edward Fitzgerald, to hunt the traitor down, while Biddlecomb must rely on cunning and seamanship to free his men and the ship, and to capture the gunpowder that is the lifeblood of the fight for liberty. Divided by an ocean but bound by the cause, as well as by their own private fears, Biddlecomb and Fitzgerald must take on a common enemy—the greatest military power on earth. This is a powerful saga of the American Revolution—a stirring maritime adventure in the epic, true-to-life tradition of Patrick O’Brian.

James L. Nelson

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