Bøger af James L. Nelson

Thorgrim Night Wolf and his men, hunkered down behind their ad hoc defenses and facing off against the powerful army of Æthelwulf, king of Wessex, must find some means to continue their voyage home. But Æthelwulf, too, is trapped, unable to set sail on his pilgrimage to Rome while the powerful fleet of Northmen remains at his doorstep. It's only when the enigmatic Felix proposes a solution, acceptable to both sides, that the impasse is broken. It is a solution that will take them across the narrow seas that separate England from Frankia, one that will take Thorgrim and Louis de Roumois that much closer to their homes, and into even greater danger on the other side. As Thorgrim fights for his survival, his son Odd, leader of the nascent rebellion against Halfdan the Black, takes his first tentative steps out of hiding. Odd and his brothers-in-arms, still outlaws and wanted men, must gauge the threat that awaits them as they make their secret way toward their former homes. The truth, however, is soon revealed; Halfdan's fury has not abated, and he and his men will stop at nothing to run Odd to earth and crush him and his rebellion once and for all.

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.

With their longships storm-blown to the southern coast of Engla-land, Thorgrim Night Wolf and his men find themselves rich with plunder and safely ensconced in a priory called Christchurch. But that cannot last. Thorgrim, in a wolf dream, has seen the enemy armies closing in, and he knows that their peace will soon be at an end. The gods do not go so easy on him and his men. He has learned that through experience and hard use. Nor are the gods the only threat they face. As Nothwulf, brother of the murdered ealdorman of Dorset, and Cynewise, his sister-in-law, fight for rule of the shire, each seeks to make the raiders unwitting pawns in their game, maneuvering toward a final battle that each hopes will spell the end of the other and crush the Norse strangers who have invaded their shores.

For fifteen years Caleb Hayes built and ran one of the most successful security firms in Los Angeles, catering to celebrities at the top of the A-list. Now, desperate for change, desperate to be free of the secret that tortures him, he has come back to his native Maine, and to the work of his younger days, hauling lobster traps from the cold Atlantic. But the small town of Hopefleet, his boyhood home, is now ground zero in a fight between two international corporations; one that wants to build a liquid natural gas terminal in the little fishing town, and another that will do anything to stop them. Just as Caleb thinks he has found the escape he so desperately wants, a corpse tangled in his trap line plunges him into a world of violence and intrigue. To keep himself and Katie Brennan, his partner in lobster catching, alive, Caleb must fall back on the clandestine and lethal skills he had hoped to leave behind along with the life he tried to flee.

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.

Summer comes to Ireland and an uneasy peace holds at Loch Garman. The Northmen, eager to get to sea, work relentlessly on their ships, with the aid of their unlikely allies, the Irish, who are just as eager to see them go. But not everyone is willing to just let them sail away. Certain that God demands the heathens be punished, the one-eyed warrior-turned-monk Brother Bécc is determined that Thorgrim and his men will not simply go free. And when another band of raiders arrives, Bécc finds the excuse he needs to take action. Meanwhile, in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Wessex, murder leads to a violent struggle for the seat of ealdorman, ruler of the shire of Dorset. Desperate as each side is to tip the balance of power their way, no one imagines that the upper hand might come from the direction they least expect-from the sea.

Captain Isaac Biddlecomb finds his ship and crew trapped between evading the British royal navy and bands of outlaws terrorizing the New Jersey coast. After his wife, Virginia Biddlecomb, lets his position slip to British forces Isaac finds himself having to respond quickly to the growing threats.

It is 1777, the Year of the Hangman, and Captain Isaac Biddlecomb is bound for Philadelphia 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 to Biddlecomb, the entire British fleet stands between him and the new nation's capital. Forced to run his beloved Charlemagne aground, Biddlecomb comes face-to-face with his mortal enemy, Royal Navy Lieutenant John Smeaton. Meanwhile, General Washington has yielded Philadelphia 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.

Nelson's exciting seafaring trilogy concludes. As cries for independence ring through the chambers of the Second Continental Congress, Captain Isaac Biddlecomb and his crew are called upon to engage The Royal Navy.

James L. Nelson''s Revolution at sea saga has brought to life a never-before-seen side of America''s war for independence. With the expertise of a seasoned mariner, a historian''s vivid attention to detail, and a natural gift for sensational storgtelling, "the American counterpart to Patrick O''Brian" (David Brink) carries us along on his bold and stirring course through history. After ferrying General George Washington''s troops across the East River and through the hell known as the Battle of Long Island, Captain Isaac Biddlecomb receives a monumental order. He is to transport to France the most powerful secret weapon in the country''s arsenal -- scientist, philosopher, and spirit of the enlightenment Dr. Benjamin Franklin. With a new team of men forging through the wintry North Atlantic, and braving the cordon of the Royal Navy, Biddlecomb''s seemingly simple mission is just the first volley in a grand scheme: to topple France''s neutrality by gaining its vital support, and turn the colonial uprising into a full-scale world war for freedom.

Fate tests Isaac's mettle as he is captured by the enemy and faces a life of servitude under the deranged captain and sadistic crew of the HMS Icarus.

This is a powerful saga of the American Revolution-a stirring maritime adventure in the epic, true-to-life tradition of Patrick O'Brian.

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 tumbleΓÇöthat 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.