Book picks similar to
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Angelo McCurdy
historical-fiction
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tbr-historical-fiction
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The Passage of Time
Cherokee Parks - 2018
Many Southerners were losing everything they had, many more people than just those few who had held slaves. While most tried to stay and hang on to the decorum of Southern gentility, a few decided that rather then lose their family farms and businesses it would be better to build a new life elsewhere. This is the story of one such group, who determined that their future and the futures of their friends and families was to be found in Texas. Jed Simpson and his partner Roscoe Sartain are joined by families from both North and South, black and white, and on the advice of a fellow Confederate, they stop in Rusk. Finding an old, now vacant, plantation, they manage to buy it and start rebuilding it as a small ranch, The Chalice. All is going better than any of them expected, until Jed’s past comes calling. Aided by friends both new and old, blood flows freely as Jed tries to put that past behind him once and for all. But the toll it takes may be too much for him as he faces down the last of his tormentors.
Viking Tales: Saga of the Lost Ship
Jason Vail - 2018
Ari Thorgilsson builds a cargo ship, the Uxi, in a desperate attempt to save the family from poverty and ruin. Ari sails it out of his home in the fjords of Norway to the Orkney Islands and then into the Irish Sea, where a chance encounter makes an enemy of Ivar the Younger, a son of the Danish Viking Ivar the Boneless. While pursued by Ivar the Younger, a storm drives the ship onto the rocky coast of a hostile land, where the ship is wrecked he and the crew are captured by native Britons. Execution or enslavement seem to be their fate. But there is yet hope, for Artgal, king of the British kingdom of Alt Clut, is in need of warriors. He promises Ari a new ship if he and his companions garrison a fortress on the border with the Picts to the north, while he takes an army to fight the Angles in the east. Ari and his friends accept the offer, and plunge into a year of intrigue and battle in the depths of the land that one day will be known as Scotland, testing their mettle and their commitment to their honor. A Pictish invasion seems to spell the end of Ari’s dream of a new ship. And then a fleet of Danish Vikings sails into the River Clut to lay siege to Artgal’s fortress, thrusting that dream well beyond his grasp. Or does it?
Wise Men: A Novel
Reagan Arthur Books - 2013
His first big purchase is a simple beach house in a place called Bluepoint, a town on the far edge of the flexed arm of Cape Cod.It's in Bluepoint, during the summer of 1952, that Arthur's teenage son, Hilly, makes friends with Lem Dawson, a black man whose job it is to take care of the house but whose responsibilities quickly grow. When Hilly finds himself falling for Lem's niece, Savannah, his affection for her collides with his father's dark secrets. The results shatter his family, and hers.Years later, haunted by his memories of that summer, Hilly sets out to find Savannah, in an attempt to right the wrongs he helped set in motion. But can his guilt, and his good intentions, overcome the forces of history, family, and identity?A beautifully told multigenerational story about love and regret, Wise Men confirms that Stuart Nadler is one of the most exciting young writers at work today
The Widow Makers:Strife
Jean Mead - 2012
The eldest Standish boy, Tommy, was something of a changeling: he desired a different life and ruthlessly went in pursuit of his dream of the grandeur and riches of the landowners' class.His ambitions realised, Tommy, is intent on higher profits even though it risks the lives of the quarrymen. Joe, his father, fights for a union to secure fairer conditions for the men. The quarrymen are close to becoming victims as the war between father and son escalates.
The Train Part 1: Escape From Hell's Kitchen
Keith Schafer - 2013
Over the years it was visited by a diverse hodge-podge of notables, including Davey Crockett and Charles Dickens, all who left aghast at the horrible living conditions, the poverty and the decadence of the people they found there. At their zenith, these vulgar, diseased and murderous streets housed 30,000 homeless children of all ages--the street urchins--who played, scavenged for food, fought the elements and each other, and tried to avoid the perpetual violence that routinely threatened their survival. Death was their constant competitor, and death often won. They were the discarded refuse of the great 19th century immigrant migrations to America, and they were an undesirable nuisance to the good citizens of New York. This is the story of two such children, Anna Murphy and Ben McDonald, abandoned to the streets and thrown together in a desperate attempt to achieve the impossible: to escape from Hell’s Kitchen in search of new beginnings in far and distant lands.
The Crusader's Blade
James Mercer - 2015
Amongst his few possessions is a dagger which bears an unknown heraldic symbol. He joins a band of mercenaries heading for Venice where the Christians are assembling for the Crusade. On his journey from boy to manhood, discovering a surprisingly natural aptitude for combat, he encounters a secret Brotherhood and their avowed enemy The Order of the Blooded Cross. “The Crusader’s Blade” is the first of three novels that draw heavily on historical detail, intermingling real and fictitious characters and events to give an enthralling portrait of the religious battles of the age.
Finding Henry Brubaker (The Finding Trilogy Book 3)
Jean Reinhardt - 2014
As the past comes back to haunt him, the old doctor realises there are more sinister reasons for his abduction than he was led to believe. Is it too late for him to make amends?
“Four Scalps” Ofer Tal, Mountain Man
Terry Grosz - 2018
In 1806, the return to St. Louis of Lewis and Clark from their epic journey across the unexplored American West with their tales of untold abundance of valuable furbearers excited the populace. Manuel Lisa, St. Louis businessman and trader with local Indian tribes, responded to such tales by forming an expedition that boated up the Missouri and down the Yellowstone to the mouth of the Bighorn River to establish a fort and trading post. There he initiated trade with the Indians, the principal harvesters of animal furs in America, and sent out his company trappers. Thus begins Ofer’s adventures when his father Yossef released Ofer and his four brothers from their lives as ranchers, to go forth into the American West as fur trappers to satisfy their desires for adventure as foretold by Lewis and Clark. Shortly thereafter, Ofer and his brothers ventured upstream on the Missouri and down the Yellowstone with Lisa, helped construct his fort and then with a mentor named Jan “Bear Trap” Driessen, continued their journey as fur trappers. In the years following, Ofer and his brothers trapped beaver in the lands of the white man-hating Blackfeet and Gros Ventre Indians, battled Indians agitated by competing British fur interests, fought grizzly bears, endured extremes of weather, killed horse thieves and joined the brotherhood of adventurous explorers and fur trappers known today as “Mountain Men”. “Four Scalps” Ofer Tal, Mountain Man, is an epic story of a ‘wilderness man’ whose love for the unexplored American West burrowed into his soul and rested there forever, as did he… Terry Grosz began his 32-year career in wildlife law enforcement in 1966 as a Fish and Game Warden with the California Department of Fish and Game, and later as a Special Agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service protecting ‘those’ in the world of wildlife ‘who have little or no voice’… In 1998 he retired from the Service and began a second career as a writer.
The Last Season
Robert Joseph - 2016
The so-called 'Season' is beginning, a traditional period during which marriageable young ladies of the aristocracy enjoy lavish balls and are 'presented' to the monarchy as they enter high society. This year, it is 18 year old LADY MARY ASHMORE'S turn.Mary hopes that her escort to her ball will be the object of her desire: the sensitive and fiercely patriotic LORD ANDREW BUCKFORD. Although Andrew's roguish younger brother NICHOLAS has his eye on Mary, she shuns him because of his reputation as a womanizer and rumors that he is involved in activities possibly detrimental to Britain.Mary is devastated when she discovers that Andrew is deeply in love with her German-Jewish tutor RUTH HERZOG. Learning of the situation, Mary's mother, LADY CELIA, immediately discharges Ruth, sending her back to Nazi Germany. There, she is forced to live under deplorable conditions in a Jewish ghetto, a stark contrast to the German life she once knew.Shocked by Ruth's sudden departure, but aware that Mary plans a visit to relatives in Berlin, Andrew, who has joined the Royal Air Force, secures documents enabling Ruth's return to England. He pleads with Mary to deliver them to Ruth, and she reluctantly agrees. Mary's jealousy, however, gets in the way.In Berlin, Mary confronts the harsh reality of Nazi militarism, extreme anti-Semitism and the ever-present threat of Ruth's deportation to one of Hitler's death camps. In addition, she must contend with her radical cousin HEINZI who is active in the Hitler Youth movement and lusts after Mary. Nicholas surprisingly turns up in Berlin on business, and Mary gets an inkling that the mysterious project with which he is involved may prove far more powerful and important than anyone ever dreamed.After a long personal struggle, Mary realizes the harm her selfish emotions and unrequited love have caused and embarks on a dangerous plan to help Ruth escape Germany.
To So Few: A Novel of the Battle of Britain
Russell Sullman - 2013
Pilot Officer Harry Rose, fresh from training and eager to prove himself, is posted to Excalibur Squadron, a Hawker Hurricane fighter unit based in southern England. In the coming weeks and months of that fateful summer, as the outnumbered RAF battle grimly with the Luftwaffe in the skies above Britain, Rose will come to know what it is to love, and will experience both the glorious euphoria of success and the desperate bitterness of loss. As his friends dwindle in number, Rose knows that it can be only a matter of time before it is his turn...
The Unexpected Bride
Stella Clark - 2019
Out of desperation, she posts an ad and begins a correspondence with a widowed farmer, Thomas. Desperate to escape her grim situation, she accepts his marriage of convenience proposal, looking forward to a fresh start in Nebraska. As her heart fills with hope, she journeys to Nebraska, looking forward to a fresh start and new life. But when she arrives, it is not Thomas who meets her but his brother, Jay. And when Emma learns a terrible secret, she realizes that her life in Nebraska will be just as grim as it was in Chicago. Too late, she realizes that she has made the biggest mistake of her life; a mistake that will cost her dearly.
Days of the Dead (SAS Operation)
David Monnery - 1997
Ultimate mission. But can the SAS break in to a Colombian island prison and snatch an Argentine killer?1996: a terminally ill father desperately seeks answers to what happened to his son, missing for twenty years. He has the names of two Argentine men – one in Mexico City, the other imprisoned on the Colombian island of Providencia – but no one to ask the questions.A missing girl’s family have given her up for dead when they stumble upon a Miami newspaper story mentioning two of her friends. One has just died; the other, half-deranged, tells a garbled story of sexual slavery on a Caribbean island which sounds suspiciously like Providencia.MI6 and the British government are certain that a huge drug-trafficking empire is being run from the prison, and know that some of the profits are being funnelled by its Argentine ‘guest’ into financing a mercenary invasion of the Falklands. Ignored by the Colombian authorities and mysteriously obstructed by their American allies, the British have no choice but to send in their own elite force – the SAS.
HMS Aphrodite (Sea Command Book 1)
Richard Testrake - 2015
Further political machinations have secured a command for this new officer. It is now up to the new Lieutenant Charles Mullins to make a success of his new command on his own.