The Isaac Biddlecomb Series

1775. The American War of Independence is starting in earnest and Captain – and smuggler – Isaac Biddlecomb, pursued by HMS Rose, sacrifices his ship, the Judea, rather than surrender to the British. Forced to go on the run, and to disguise himself as a lowly ship's mate on a brig bound for Jamaica, he finds himself captured by the enemy. Can he use his wits to survive a life of servitude under the deranged captain and sadistic crew of the HMS Icarus...?

1775: General George Washington has discovered his store of gunpowder has dwindled to next to nothing. Captain Isaac Biddlecomb is despatched to Bermuda to capture the British gunpowder known to be there. But the plan is a trap, hatched by a traitor among the Patriots. Washington's aide-de-camp Major Edward Fitzgerald is tasked with hunting the traitor down; Biddlecomb meanwhile must work to free his ship and his men and capture the gunpowder so vital in the fight for freedom. Will Biddlecomb and Fitzgerald overcome their common enemy – the greatest military power on Earth?

1776: A decade of simmering tensions is finally coming to the boil. Determined to cast off the chains of British tyranny, the rebel government of Philadelphia has authorised the creation of the United States Navy – a brazen act of American aggression against the greatest maritime power in the world. Captain Isaac Biddlecomb sets sail in the Charlemagne on a daring mission to raid the British store of arms on New Providence Island in the Bahamas. Yet his greatest enemy is an undisciplined crew on the brink of mutiny.

1776. A fleet of British transport ships are looming off Staten Island, while the remnants of General George Washington's army huddle behind hastily constructed fortifications on Brooklyn Heights. There, Washington is preparing for the final destruction of the Continental army. Captain Isaac Biddlecomb receives a monumental order – to transport to France the most dangerous secret weapon in the country's arsenal: scientist and philosopher Benjamin Franklin. Biddlecomb's seemingly simple mission to deliver Franklin to the court of Louis XVI is just the first volley in a grand scheme.

1777. Captain Isaac Biddlecomb, together with his wife and child, is bound for Philadelphia aboard the brig Charlemagne. His orders are to take command of the newly built frigate Falmouth and take her out to sea before she is taken by General Richard Howe's invading army. Unknown to Biddlecomb, the entire British fleet stands between him and the new nation's capital. Forced to run his beloved brig aground, Biddlecomb comes face to face with his mortal enemy, Lieutenant John Smeaton.

The year 1777 is bleak indeed for the cause of American Independence, with the British army twice defeating Washington and taking the capital city of Philadelphia and the Royal Navy sweeping aside the defenses of the Delaware Bay. For Captain Isaac Biddlecomb and the men of the half-built frigate Falmouth, things are direr still. After managing to slip through a British blockade, they find themselves trapped in a desolate harbour on the New Jersey coast and menaced not by the British but by the outlaw bands that terrorise the countryside and see Falmouth as a potentially valuable prize.