War Drums (Hardcover)

The second book in this trilogy picks up where "Call to Arms" left off, as Allard Tyler limps into Nassau with his heavily damaged ship. When the ship is seaworthy again, he resumes preying on Union merchant shipping on the return voyage to Charleston. Allard's sister cunningly tricks his friend Robert into marriage but Robert finds the battlefield more attractive than his soon-to-be wife. He returns to duty as the Confederate army marches into Maryland and to the battle of Antietam. As armies manoeuvre and ships roam the seas, Allard clashes with his father in the running of the family shipyard. Discouraged by his own wife's behaviour, he finds a way to go to sea once more but it is a fateful voyage that climaxes in Nassau, where mayhem, death and indiscretions combine in a harrowing struggle for life and for hope.