Western Wars

BookFest Fall 2024 Winner of two First Place Medals (Historical Fiction War & Military) and one Second Place Medal (Multi-period Family Saga) Sometimes the wounds you can’t see leave the deepest scars… In the throes of World War II, Mary McGinn finds herself at the heart of a global conflict, not on the front lines, but in the quiet battlefields of her own home. Widowed and left to raise twelve children on her own, Mary's life becomes a tapestry woven with threads of love, sacrifice, and unwavering determination. As the McGinn men scatter across the globe to serve in various branches of...

When Ron Freeman suggested I write a historical novel, I instantly thought of family but also hesitated, knowing of merely a few intriguing stories—certainly not enough to base a full book. Nonetheless, using my penchant for creating something suspenseful, I began with a few fictional characters, intending to use them as enemies, crisscrossing through the lives of a few of my kindred dead as they experienced the great European diaspora of the nineteenth century. Starting with the Tattons and Davenports was reasonable since they left England at the appropriate time. However, I knew I ...

The Great War of 1914-1918 was the first mass conflict to fully mobilize the resources of industrial powers against one another, resulting in a brutal, bloody, protracted war of attrition between the world's great economies. Now, 100 years after the first guns of August rang out on the Western front, historian William Philpott reexamines the causes and lingering effects of the first truly modern war.

World War I was the stage for a new form of mass destruction and violent chemical warfare. When the Bolsheviks pulled Russia out of the war in 1917, the Germans turned their offensive moves to the eastern front in hopes of winning the war in 1918. But as fresh American troops entered the front, the scales tipped against Germany.

Art looting is commonly recognized as a central feature of Nazi expropriation. After the war, the famed Monuments Men (and women) recovered several hundred thousand pieces from the Germans' makeshift repositories. Well-publicized restitution cases, such as that of Gustav Klimt's luminous painting featured in the film Woman in Gold, illustrate the legacy of Nazi looting in the art world today. But what happened to looted art that was never returned to its rightful owners?

21st Century America has one historical trend: it’s more and more divided each year. There are dozens of factors that warn if a country is headed toward civil war. After the 2020 Pandemic almost all those alarms are sounding. The state of the union is weak at best. Most Americans are barely surviving economically. Years of high inflation forced millions to live off credit cards and so debts are increasing. Wages have trailed behind growth for decades. As people get more desperate, millions turn to crime. Mass shootings, violent crime, armed robberies all increased after the pandemic. More...

You can take the man out of law enforcement. But you can’t take the law enforcement out of the man. Logan McCoy has a ranch and he just wants to work on it. However his peace is short-lived, as deadly attacks spread across his town. His townsfolk are suddenly violated by torture, murder, arson, kidnapping, and cattle rustling. Logan is forced to take up his badge again – as deputy sheriff. Cattle baron Brock Collins wants a ranch empire for himself. Brock is using the simple invention of the barbed wire to colonize a territory, at the expense of the innocent. Deputy Sheriff Logan needs ...

Berlin was in ruins when Soviet forces fought their way towards the Reichstag in the spring of 1945. Streets were choked with rubble, power supplies severed and the population close to starvation. The arrival of the Soviet army heralded yet greater terrors: the city's civilians were to suffer rape, looting and horrific violence. Worse still, they faced a future with neither certainty nor hope.

Dubbed by many pundits as “The Most Stupid War in the World,” the Ukraine conflict is one that hardly anyone saw coming back in 2010. However, it is close to a decade old already. In this conflict in the evenly divided Ukraine, brinkmanship by the local players in the country, by the West that wants to drag Ukraine into its orbit, and by Russia that fears losing Ukraine and its security in the process, is the norm. At the same time, the world watches in a seemingly helpless manner as Ukraine gets torn apart at the seams. Most of the governments in the West blame Russia for instigating ...

Between the two armies, at the confluence of the two rivers, sits a rich prize, a vast plantation run by young, beautiful Mrs. Hawkland. At any moment Union or Confederate forces could seize her land and set fire to her home to prevent the enemy from doing so first. Confederate officer Jamie Russell comes to her plantation by chance, only to find that that she is no stranger; his dreams of their brief but passionate encounter fill his nights as war fills his days.

Steep mountain climbs, Indian raids, and lonely New Mexico roads bathed in murderous heat – Crow Woodruff has seen it all. But he’s never had an ex-boss try to shoot him dead. Tired of being treated like a slave, Crow leaves Lawrence Bain’s freighting company and soon finds himself in charge of his own. Now, Bain is losing his fortune. He’s desperate to regain his domination of the supply routes and all the people he abuses for to maintain a life of luxury. With their bitter past fueling his desire to triumph over Bain, Crow refuses to put his mules back in the stall. It’s not ...

Read this for free with your Kindle Unlimited Membership Greece is a colorful country and has always been the target of many tourists looking to have a relaxing time. However, what many people do not seem to know is that Greece also packs a rich history – all lying beneath the beautiful landscapes and beaches. Its history starts thousands of years before the Christian calendar was used – and each moment represents a cultural artifact that enriched more than a single country. Greece went through many wars – big and small. Some were fought because certain conquerors had their eyes on ...

Mastering the West offers a thoroughly engrossing narrative of this century of battle in the western Mediterranean, while treating a full range of themes: the antagonists' military, naval, economic, and demographic resources; the political structures of both republics; and the postwar impact of the conflicts on the participants and victims.

A historical fiction book set in England and the Middle East during World War I. In "Secret Plot of WWI," the stakes of war are heightened as Major Richard Hannay embarks on a perilous mission that could change the course of history. Battling his own demons and the scars of recent combat, Hannay must navigate the treacherous waters of espionage and military strategy to thwart a potential uprising led by a charismatic figure threatening to ignite Islamic jihad against the Allied forces. With influences from the past haunting him, Hannay's journey takes him beyond the battlefield, revealing ...

In 1945, the New Yorker commissioned star reporter Rebecca West to cover the London trial of William Joyce, who stood accused by the British government of aiding the Third Reich. Joyce was alleged to have hosted a radio program, Germany Calling, devoted to Nazi propaganda and calls for a British surrender. The legal case against Joyce (known as "Lord Haw-Haw" for his supposedly posh accent) proved to be tenuous and full of uncertainties.

Jameson Cooper has always been a law-abiding citizen in Blakemore. A few years ago, he was fortunate enough to get deputized. His brother, Holden Cooper, is the complete opposite. Holden could never keep down a job or hang on to a healthy relationship. For the most part, he is always getting himself in trouble. One night, Holden Cooper is leaving a poker game after losing all of his money when he hears a gunshot. He turns around and runs toward the sound of trouble. When he gets there, Holden is shocked to discover a body. The man who won the poker game has been shot. In the morning, the ...

From western writer Gary Church, author of the Johnny Black Western Adventure and Barlow Seeker of Justice series. March your way across the battlefields of the American Civil War and share adventure, pain and danger with Ellis Tucker and Gunnar Lund as they fight for survival against gunfire and disease, while Beatrice Hays waits at home for Tucker, her fiancée. In the next two years, the three will face a multitude of obstacles they must overcome if they are to survive and have a life after the war. From Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to the battlefields of Virginia and on to San Francisco, ...

Lottie Sinclair’s ordinary life takes a dramatic turn after one fateful night. Her husband is walking home from his long shift in the town’s mines when he is attacked and killed by a masked gang. A few weeks later, more aggressors invade Lottie’s home and kidnap her two sons. Suddenly, she is all alone. Her family is gone, and she doesn’t know why. A couple of townsfolk claim they saw the Comanches riding through town last night. They are the ones that took Lottie’s sons. Lottie seeks help from the town’s sheriff, but it is evident that he is not going to help. The sheriff is ...

***Award-winner BookFest Spring 2024 - First place in Fiction > Literary - Love Story & Romance, Fiction > Romance - Small Town*** Where grit meets grace—and love is as wild as the West. In the rugged chaos following the Civil War, the American frontier is no place for the faint of heart. Outlaws rule the roads, justice is scarce, and survival is a daily fight. But one fierce and fearless woman is about to change everything. Kandice isn’t your average schoolteacher. She's the sharp-minded, sharpshooting leader of a bold group of women determined to bring education—and order—to a ...

Stuart Hills embarked his Sherman DD tank on to an LCT at 6:45 a.m., Sunday, June 4th, 1944. He was 20 years old, un-blooded, fresh from a public-school background, and officer cadet training. He was going to war. Two days later, his tank sunk; he and his crew landed from a rubber dinghy with just the clothes they stood in. After that, the struggles through the Normandy bocage in a replacement tank, engaging the enemy in a constant round of close encounters, led to a swift mastering of the art of tank warfare and remarkable survival in the midst of carnage and destruction.