It is 1588, and young English soldier Michael, stationed on Ireland’s west coast, reluctantly saves a stowaway from the wreck of a Spanish galleon. This simple act of charity has enormous ramifications, since the sailor is considered an enemy of Queen Elizabeth, and in rescuing him Michael has committed treason.
What follows is a swashbuckling chase across late 16th century Europe, with all its fascinating charms and dangers, and ending at the source of all Spain’s treasure — a mountain in Peru.
Life in the socialist state of East Germany during the Cold War is hard enough, but Paul Brennecke has been born with a handicap. He’s a scryer —he can see people’s pasts, presents, and futures in their reflections. Their deaths, inevitably, are the hardest to witness, and his life is a struggle against both his insights and an oppressive regime.
The Sobieski family embodies 1968’s attitudes toward sex, drugs, rock ’n’ roll and the Vietnam War, but unlike most, it’s parents Maddy and Bret who are laid-back hippies, and elder son Jackson who perversely yearns to prove himself in battle. Middle children Sundown and Robbie are, like their parents, well entrenched in the counterculture, while young Charity just tries to make sense of it all. Jackson goes off to war, and comes back far less than the idealistic young man who left.
And at the center of it all is the paisley tree house.
Each novel in the World War One and Two Series is set during a different year. They are not connected; their commonality being ordinary people whose lives and destinies are distorted by war. Each takes place in a fictional town, itself a character, and each has an underlying theme: one art, one sport, one music, one food… They’re fast-paced, evocative and historically grounded in the very real events that characterized each year of the global conflict.
You can read sample chapters here, along with brief backgrounds on the period, and links to the books on Amazon.