The Maddest Idea: An Isaac Biddlecomb Novel

James L. Nelson

Nov 2021 · Isaac Biddlecomb Novels Book 2 · Rowman & Littlefield

About this ebook

In the late summer of 1775, General George Washington discovers that his cache of gunpowder has dwindled to a mere nine shots per man. A desperate plan is hatched—to send a ship under the command of Captain Isaac Biddlecomb to Bermuda to capture the British powder known to be there. But the plan is a trap, set by a traitor among the patriots, and one from which even Biddlecomb cannot escape. Washington dispatches his aide-de-camp, Major Edward Fitzgerald, to hunt the traitor down, while Biddlecomb must rely on cunning and seamanship to free his men and the ship, and to capture the gunpowder that is the lifeblood of the fight for liberty.

Divided by an ocean but bound by the cause, as well as by their own private fears, Biddlecomb and Fitzgerald must take on a common enemy—the greatest military power on earth.

This is a powerful saga of the American Revolution—a stirring maritime adventure in the epic, true-to-life tradition of Patrick O’Brian.

About the author

James L. Nelson is the award-winning author of more than twenty works of maritime fiction and history. His books cover the gamut from Vikings to piracy in Colonial America to naval action during the American Revolution and the Civil War. His novel Glory in the Name was the winner of the American Library Association/William Young Boyd Award for Best Military Fiction and his nonfiction George Washington’s Secret Navy won the Naval Order’s Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval Literature. He has lectured all over the country and has appeared on the Discovery Channel, History Channel, and BookTV. He currently lives in Harpswell, Maine, with his former Golden Hinde shipmate and wife, Lisa.