Oliver Hazard Perry is the youngest lieutenant in the history of the United States Navy. The US has only recently won its independence and Barbary pirates prey upon American merchant vessels at will until President Jefferson has had enough and declares war. Hazard sails to the Mediterranean with orders to join an American squadron blockading Tripoli, only his captain does not share Hazard's deeply ingrained family belief of action over apathy. At Gibraltar the English give him no hospitality, and he only escapes after he makes a new friend in an absurdly bombastic Scottish admiral.
When finally on the shores of Tripoli Hazard accidentally saves a clandestine mission involving the very first US Marines. The newly promoted Commodore Preble, a man of action, selects Hazard for another secret mission, this time to storm a Tripolitan fortress.
The Commodore rewards Hazard's success with a secret scouting mission to the next Barbary sultanate, Tunisia. His mission is discovered by the Bey but when the Algerian ambassador almost kills the Bey's daughter Hazard saves her. The Bey is indebted and aids Hazard's next mission, to Algiers, to incite a coup d'etat through a running action through the city's narrow alleys, squares, slave auctions, and finally the Bey's palace itself, resulting in the last Barbary state suing for peace with the United States.
On his way home, Hazard thinks he's only stopping in Gibraltar briefly but trouble awaits him yet again. He finds himself across the Spanish border amongst a Napoleonic French and Spanish army preparing to attack the English. Hazard's final desperate adventure is to make his way back to Gibraltar, with help from his old friend the Scottish Admiral, to save, of all people, the English.
This Commercial Historical Fiction Action Adventure novel is approximately 85,000 words. It was inspired by Justin's award winning historical fiction screenplay "Hazard: The Mediterranean Years" which chronicles Hazard's first mission as a midshipman during the Quasi-war throughout the Caribbean.
