Books in the Cutler Family Chronicles series

Credited with vividly recreating an early chapter in American history with his first novel, A Matter of Honor, William C. Hammond continues the seafaring adventures of the prominent Cutler family of Massachusetts. Set in the years following the American Revolution, this second novel offers an exciting look at the young republic at a time when America remained a weak nation with no navy to protect its prosperous merchant fleet from Barbary pirates or nations intent on crippling its shipping.The novel opens with the capture of the Cutler merchant brig Eagle by Barbary pirates. Young Caleb Cutler and his shipmates are taken as prisoners to Algiers, and his brother Richard, the novel''s main protagonist, is sent to North Africa to pay ransoms demanded by the Dey of Algiers. But Richard learns of the Dey''s intent to reject the ransom, as well as threats from the British and French, and fights a fierce battle in the Mediterranean with two Arab xebecs. Victorious at sea, Richard travels to Paris to report to John Paul Jones, his former naval commander who now serves as American emissary to the Barbary States, and finds himself involved in a desperate race to save the beautiful Anne-Marie Helvétian and her two daughters from the guillotine.The author''s careful historical research and thorough knowledge of sailing and the ways of the sea bring an authenticity to the novel without detracting from the entertaining storyline. Hammond''s focus on the American perspective of the Age of Fighting Sail in the years following the American Revolution adds a fresh dimension to historical novels of the period.

Set primarily in the Mediterranean Sea during the First Barbary War (1801-1805), A Call To Arms offers the reader intriguing and often startling insights into a young republic's struggle to promote its principles of liberty, equality, and free trade in a world ravaged by the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and ruthless piracy in both the Mediterranean and Far Eastern waters.

The Power and the Glory is the third novel in the historical, nautical fiction series from William C. Hammond. It follows in the wake of A Matter of Honor and For Love of Country, and features the adventures of the seafaring Cutler family of Hingham, Massachusetts, and an ever expanding cast of characters. Set during the Quasi-War against the French Republic during the late 1790s, The Power and the Glory offers the reader a stirring and authentic look at the birth of the modern United States Navy during the Age of Fighting Sail. Whether confronting French pirates off the coast of Nantucket or heavily armed French frigates in the Caribbean, Capt. Thomas Truxtun, Capt. Silas Talbot, Lt. Richard Cutler, and other early naval heroes-most real, some fictional-personify the best of American honor and courage. Beyond electrifying sea battles and the challenge to French colonial rule in Haiti and in the French West Indies, The Power and the Glory provides intriguing glimpses into everyday life of the era, be they in the bedroom of the Cutler clapboard home in Hingham, on the island of Barbados where the Cutlers own a sugar cane plantation and run a far-reaching commercial enterprise, or aboard Adm. Sir Hyde Parker''s flagship in Port Royal, Jamaica. And at the center of all the excitement, passion, and intrigue are two of the finest "super frigates" ever constructed: USS Constellation and her sister ship, USS Constitution. As with all books in the series, the author''s careful research and attention to detail, coupled with his thorough knowledge of sailing and the ways of the sea, bring history alive in a refreshing and entertaining fashion.