Discover this popular nautical series for yourself...
The Midshipman Prince, Book One
Available through: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, and Fireship Press
How do you keep a prince alive when the combined forces of three nations (and a smattering of privateers) want him dead? Worse, how do you do it when his life is in the hands of a 17 year old lieutenant, an alcoholic college professor, and a woman who has fired more naval guns than either of them?
Form the Battle of Capes, which sealed the fate of Yorktown, to the Battle of the Saints, which shaped the fate of the Caribbean, The Midshipman Prince will take you on a wild ride through 18th Century nautical history.
"His portrayal of the Battle of the Saints is off the charts. It's the best description of an Age of Sail sea battle I've ever read."
..."he (Grundner) is certainly in a league with Julian Stockwin and Dewey Lambdin; and has a style that is refreshingly different from any of the above."
..."a rich, colorful, bawdy tale of the seas. It captured my attention and held it... with just the right amount of suspense and action to sail to a climatic ending."
HMS Diamond, Book Two
Available through: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, and Fireship Press
Sidney Smith, now “Sir Sidney,” is reunited with his friends, Lucas Walker and Susan Whitney.
After surviving the horrors of the destruction of Toulon, Sir Sidney is given a critical assignment. British gold shipments are going missing. Even worse, the ships are literally disappearing in plain sight of their escorts and the vessels around them. The mystery must be solved if Britain is going to maintain its lines of credit and continue to finance the war. But to do that Sir Sidney must unravel a web of intrigue that leads all the way to the Board of Admiralty.
The Temple, Book Three
Available through: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, and Fireship Press
It’s 1798 and Sir Sidney Smith is languishing in “The Temple,” France’s maximum security prison. For the past two years he had been running the Agence de Paris―Britain’s primary spy ring in France―from his cell. But the authorities are starting to close in. It’s time for Sir Sidney to leave; but, to do so, he must stage one of the most spectacular prison breaks in history.
Arriving back in England, Sir Sidney is welcomed as a national hero; but he is far from comfortable in that role. It is with relief, therefore, that he receives a set of orders sending him to Portsmouth for further duty. What he didn’t know was that his new duty would involve working with an itinerant musician, by the name of William Parish―who happens to be a genius at breaking codes.
Napoleon is massing ships, troops, and supplies at Toulon and a number of other ports. He is clearly planning an invasion; but an invasion of who, where and when, no one knows. The key is a captured message that Parish and Smith must break, but it’s encoded in a way that has never been seen before.
From a dreary prison in Paris, to the opulent palaces of Constantinople, to the horror of the Battle of the Nile―The Temple will take you on a wild ride through 18th Century history.
Acre, Book Four
Available through: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iBooks, Kobo, and Fireship Press
Nelson has defeated the French fleet at the Battle of the Nile, and Bonaparte is trapped in Egypt. Unfortunately, Bonaparte doesn’t see it that way, and that fact brings into conflict three of the most significant figures of the day.
Napoleon’s army might not be able to go anywhere by sea, but they can still march. He leads them from Egypt through Syria toward Constantinople. From there he can go west and enter Europe through the backdoor, or go east, and conquer India. Either way, it would be a disaster for Britain. The only thing standing in his way is a small coastal city called Acre.
Sir Sidney Smith is given command of every British warship in the eastern Mediterranean—all of two third-rate ships of the line. He moves his minuscule forces to Acre to head off Bonaparte. What he finds is a nearly indefensible city, ruled by a bloodthirsty tyrant named Jezzar Pasha. With those two ships and a half-crazy ruler, he must defeat Napoleon on land—something that no European general has ever done.
After the Battle of the Nile, Nelson retires to Naples where he finds rest, adulation, and Emma Hamilton, the woman who would become his lover. However, French forces have captured the city causing the King and Queen of Naples to flee to Sicily. When the French are finally driven out, Nelson must secure the peace; but he does so by canceling a surrender agreement, tricking the Jacobin supporters into coming out of hiding, and then standing by while they are slaughtered.
Acre sets a dizzying pace, sweeping the reader from Smith, to Napoleon, to Nelson—over and over—until you are almost intoxicated. It is perhaps the best book ever done about this little known, but extremely important, chapter in world history.
The Sir Sidney Smith Series is based on the life of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith (1764-1840)
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