James L. Haley has 4 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.6★ across 6 ratings. The most-rated is Captive Paradise.
The Shores of Tripoli
Summary
The first novel in a brilliant new series by award-winning historian James L. Haley, featuring young midshipman Bliven Putnam as he begins his naval service aboard the USS Enterprise. It is 1801, and President Thomas Jefferson has assembled a deep-water navy to fight the growing threat of piracy, as American civilians are regularly kidnapped by Islamist brigands and held for ransom, enslaved, or killed, all at their captors' whim. The Berber States of North Africa, especially Tripoli, claimed their faith gave them the right to pillage anyone who did not submit to their religion. Young Bliven Putnam, great-nephew of Revolutionary War hero Israel Putnam, is bound for the Mediterranean and a desperate battle with the pirate ship Tripoli. He later returns under the legendary Commodore Edward Preble on the Constitution and marches across the Libyan desert with General Eaton to assault Derna - discovering the lessons he learns about war and life are not what he expected. Rich with historical detail and cracking with high-wire action, The Shores of Tripoli brings this amazing period in American history to life with brilliant clarity.
©2016 James L. Haley (P)2016 Penguin Audio
Captive Paradise
Summary
In the tradition of Nathaniel Philbrick and David McCullough comes the first full-scale narrative history of Hawaii, an epic tale of empire, industry, war, and culture. The most recent state to join the union, Hawaii is the only one to have once been a royal kingdom. After its discovery by Captain Cook in the late 18th century, Hawaii was fought over by European powers determined to take advantage of its position as the crossroads of the Pacific. The arrival of the first missionaries marked the beginning of the struggle between a native culture with its ancient gods, sexual libertinism, and rites of human sacrifice and the rigid values of the Calvinists. While Hawaii's royal rulers adopted Christianity, they also fought to preserve their ancient ways. But the success of the ruthless American sugar barons sealed their fate, and in1893 the American Marines overthrew Liliuokalani, the last queen of Hawaii. Captive Paradise is the story of King Kamehameha I, the Conqueror, who unified the islands through terror and bloodshed but whose dynasty succumbed to inbreeding; of Gilded Age tycoons like Claus Spreckels, who brilliantly outmaneuvered his competitors; of firebrand Lorrin Thurston, who was determined that Hawaii be ruled by whites; of President McKinley, who presided over the eventual annexation of the islands. Not since James Michener's classic novel Hawaii has there been such a vibrant and compelling portrait of an extraordinary place and its people.
©2014 James L. Haley (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
A Darker Sea
Summary
The second installment of the gripping naval saga by award-winning historian James L. Haley, featuring Commander Bliven Putnam, chronicling the buildup to the biggest military conflict between the United States and Britain after the Revolution - the War of 1812. At the opening of the War of 1812, the British control the most powerful navy on earth, and Americans are again victims of piracy. Bliven Putnam, late of the Battle of Tripoli, is dispatched to Charleston to outfit and take command of a new 20-gun brig, the USS Tempest. Later, aboard the Constitution, he sails into the furious early fighting of the war. Prowling the South Atlantic in the Tempest, Bliven takes prizes and disrupts British merchant shipping until he is overhauled, overmatched, and disastrously defeated by the frigate HMS Java. Its captain proves to be Lord Arthur Kington, whom Bliven had so disastrously met in Naples. Onboard he also finds his old friend Sam Bandy, one of the Java's pressed American seamen kidnapped into British service. Their whispered plans to foment a mutiny among the captives may see them hang when the Constitution looms over the horizon for one of the most famous battles of the War of 1812 in a gripping, high-wire conclusion. With exquisite detail and guns-blazing action, The Tempest illuminates an unforgettable period in American history.
©2017 James L. Haley (P)2017 Penguin Audio
The Devil in Paradise: Captain Putnam in Hawaii
Summary
Captain Bliven Putnam returns, venturing into the Pacific to fight pirates in Malaya and match wits with the royals in Hawaii, in this next installment of award-winner James L. Haley's gripping naval saga. Following the naval victories of the War of 1812 and the Second Barbary War, the United States is finally expanding its navy to take a place of prominence in world affairs. Bliven Putnam, now Captain of the sloop of war Rappahannock, has come into his own as a leader and is ordered to the Pacific. But with this new tour of duty to last more than two years, his patient wife, Clarity, unwilling to accept such a brief time together, at last puts her foot down. If she can't keep Putnam with her, then she'll just have to go with him. As Putnam sets sail for his new home port in Honolulu, Clarity joins a new missionary effort from Boston to Hawaii. On their respective paths, the Putnams encounter a new breed of pirate and meet an unexpected force of nature: Kahumanu, the formidable queen of the Hawaiian Islands. Inspried by the real-life Olowalu Massacre and the famed Congregationalist missoin of 1819, this third outing will be unlike any adventure the Putnams have faced before.
©2019 James L. Haley (P)2019 Penguin Audio