Showing results by author "Gilbert M. Stack" in All Categories

ABBA, Air Supply, Charlie’s Angels, Ronald Reagan—it’s 1981 and real estate attorney, Lynne Winters’, is struggling to manage a constantly complaining mother and a law practice tanking in the worst real estate market in a decade. Then her life really goes insane when a long brown envelope lands on her desk. The heir to the Mackland furniture empire has been kidnapped and the kidnapper has forced Lynne smack in the middle of the ransom negotiations. It’s the most important case of her career, but in a time when professional women too often aren’t taken seriously, it will take all...

Legionnaire is a gritty high fantasy series set on the borders of the far-flung Republic of Aquila. While political in-fighting and scheming are the order of the day in the heart of the Republic, the borderlands are awash with dangers, only kept in check by the might of the legions. Fell magics, savage peoples, and scheming empires all threaten the country Patrician Marcus Venandus has sworn to defend using his wits, military strategy, and his small command of highly disciplined legionnaires.

Despite their impressive victories in the north, Prefect Marcus and the Black hat Legion stand alone against the full might of Diamonte and Aquamarina. With their home city under siege and the cowardly Lord Totila refusing to lead his host out from behind the walls of Centinela, it falls once again to Marcus to protect his adopted homeland by himself. His only hope is to thread the needle, maneuvering his legion across enemy-occupied Amatista to the one location that might enable him to recapture the initiative in this war. It’s a risky gamble. With multiple armies afield and none of them...

Lesser Tribune Marcus Venandus, Legion officer exemplar, was exiled to the disease-ridden hell hole known as the Fire Islands as punishment for the failed political machinations of his father. While the days of the powerful witchdoctor kings throwing skeletal armies against the shields of the legion have faded into history, all is not right at the edge of the world. Unrest is boiling once again as long dead darkness seeps back into the islands.

For the first time in seven decades, orcs sail the Western Sea. Orcs—the bogey men of every frightening children’s story. Once upon a time, it took the combined might of the Fellowship of the Accord to stop them—elves, dwarves, humans, sylvans, shimmers, aerie, and water folk joined together to throw back the stormtroopers of the Great Defile. But the champions of those races are long dead leaving none to stand up and lead a new defense. This time, there is only one halfling with his axes and his highly fashionable hat to hold the line against evil and determine the ultimate fate of ...

The Festival of the Midnight Bloom was supposed to ignite feelings of love and lust in the southerners of Al-Andalus. Instead, the Pretender Earl of Fortaleza and his allies have used it to turn their co-religionists into berserk cannibals seeking to feast on northern flesh. Now Marshal Sturm, the legitimate earl, must figure out how to save thousands of northern survivors from hordes of mindless people who do not feel pain and seem to keep fighting even after they're dead. All he has to combat them with is his bayonet, a few stout friends, and a handful of rickety barriers to bolster the ...

The war seems to be going well for Marcus, but he has forgotten the most important rule of the Jeweled Cities—alliances are made to be broken. In a world where even the ethnic peoples of the north—Gota, Gente and Qing—cannot remain united against the other peoples, how can Marcus convince them to remain true to their commitments to an outsider like him? And yet his honor is not so malleable as that of many of his new neighbors. He will stay the course and defend his dead brother’s home—even if the only things he can depend on are the swords and spears of his legionnaires.

Marshal Sturm has been given the seemingly impossible task of claiming the earldom of Fortaleza from the hands of a pretender who has had control of the territory for nearly a year. To have any hope of success, he needs an army trained in the musket doctrine he used to hold Steil Pass and conquer the city of Hekt. But where does a peer of the realm recruit an army when his fief is already in enemy hands? If you’re Marshal Sturm, you return to Eisenland, the territory you grew up in. But not everyone in his homeland is happy to see a local boy elevated to the top of the peerage. And old ...

Surrounded by enemies, Prefect Marcus Venandus launches a bold stroke to eliminate one opponent in the coming war. The key to his plan is the fortified border town of Centinela - the Sentinel of Southern Morganita. Its fortified walls are strong enough to delay conventional forces for weeks, giving the other enemy city-states plenty of time to invade Amatista from the east. Can he take advantage and neutralize Centinela? Or will his risky gambit cost Marcus and his allies the war?

With the passes to Ópalo forced open again, Prefect Marcus Venandus hoped to gain a respite to build his army for the war he knows is coming in the spring. Unfortunately, his enemies understand all too well the threat he poses to them, and they are taking steps to kill him before he reaches next year’s battlefields. Assassins, both mundane and magical, step out of the shadows to strike at him, while other conspirators take advantage of the intense divisions within the city to spark riots to bring the government down.

Only one tiny halfling stands in the way of an power seeking to wipe out a grand alliance that has lasted for millennia. None of the inhabitants of the scum ridden town of Hidden Harbor seem to be able to take him seriously, but they are about to learn how wrong they are. For the gods were tricked into putting aside their differences to create one final champion. Armed only with a hatchet and a highly fashionable hat, the halfling champion is doing his best to save the world by chopping down one evil villain at a time.

Long before Prefect Marcus Venandus directed the defense of the Jeweled Hills, Green Vigil Marcus led his first command into the treacherous jungles of Ekángá. As if the jungle itself wasn’t deadly enough, native warriors and shamans strike from its shadows with magic, spears, and darts, while the forcibly transplanted Graeci population seethes with unrest in the supposedly civilized regions of the province.

As word of the Legion’s lightning conquest of Malaquita echoes across Diamonte, the Black Hat commander plans an even more audacious move. Rather than consolidate his gains in the west, Marcus launches a surprise strike downriver on Hessonita—the forward rallying point for Diamonte’s attempted counterattack. The key to his plan is speed and surprise—how close can they get before the city realizes its danger? If Hessonita has time to prepare a river defense, Marcus could lose the entire legion. Yet this time, the fog of war conceals dangers beyond human comprehension. Will the Camino...

Marcus has defeated the smaller half of the army of Thegn Chilperic by the skin of his teeth, but now he must rally his legion and its allies to stop the Thegn’s main force from rolling back all of his victories. Yet, even as he fights for control of the strategic bridges on the Rio Rocoso, Marcus’ allies remain as fractious as ever. The rebellious Gente of Morganita continue to fight among themselves for leadership of their cause, while the Gota also violently question the leadership of Marcus’ friend, Evorik.

Marshal “Sturm Front” Sturm comes to Aachen to consult with the high king of Kriegsturm before taking up his responsibilities as earl of Fortaleza. After a year at war, Sturm hopes for a well-deserved rest before journeying south, but the royal capital is filled with new dangers for the young earl. Some maneuver to steal his title and wealth, others hate the Hero of Steil Pass for his astounding victories on the battlefield, and some fear the headstrong young Liberator of Hekt will ignite a civil war in the contentious south when he claims his contested lands. Sturm is about to learn ...

This book can be ordered at a 66% discount if ordered before 2/13/23. Young Willem has survived battles and assassinations, but his claim to his father’s lordship will not be secure until his formal Oathtaking at a ceremony attended by the Great Lords of the duchy. For those who still hope to push him aside, time is getting perilously short. Yet those who have already acted against him are not as dangerous as the great men who are coming; and those who wish him ill have so many ways to dispose of one irritating young man. Be it through the joust, the duel, or even open rebellion, ...

Thegns Beremund and Alaric have done the impossible. Following a plan constructed by Prefect Marcus Venandus the previous winter, they secretly led a couple of thousand people out of Amatista under the very noses of the Diamonte invaders. But now they have to get all of their refugees past the enemy patrols, through the countryside, and safely into the lands of Topacio. If they succeed, they can continue resisting Diamonte's conquest well into the next year. If they fail, Marcus and his legion will be alone in enemy territory without support and without a home to return to. Amatista has ...

By the author of Legionnaire, a supernatural thriller in honor of Occult-tober. All attorney Liz Dunn had to do was escort Ryan Hart to meet his long lost uncle in the tiny country of Carpathia on the Transylvanian border. Ryan stood to gain a ten million dollar estate. Liz wanted the hefty check that would keep her law firm in the black. But Ryan’s dying uncle, the enigmatic Stefan Carpathios, planned to get something far more sinister in return. In an ancient land where legends come to life, Liz is about to discover that the world is much more complex than she believed and a blood tie ...

When the girl of Mitch Pembroke’s dreams responds to his invitation to meet his parents by fleeing home to a remote Caribbean island, the former Great War pilot does what he thinks any red-blooded American male would do—he drops everything and goes after her. But Mitch isn’t the first man to follow Lorali home and like his predecessors, he may not survive the visit. Lazarus Key is the first novella in a series that blurs the line between historical fiction and dark fantasy.

The long-feared war has erupted and Prefect Marcus Venandus and his newly raised legion are on the front lines of the fighting. After the successful conquest of a fortified border town, Marcus leads his men deep into Morganitan territory, part of a daring plan to secure Amatista’s rear by eliminating its major northern opponent before its other foes can join in the fighting.