WITH FIRE AND SWORD:  THE BATTLE OF  
  BUNKER HILL AND THE BEGINNING OF THE 
  AMERICAN REVOLUTION
  By James L. Nelson
  Thomas Dunne Books, 2011
  384 pages, $27.99
  ISBN 978-0-312-57644-8
 
In April 1775, at the outbreak of the American Revolution, the British Army arrogantly considered the colonial militiamen nothing more than “a rabble in arms,” timid farmers who would run away at the first sight of redcoat bayonets.

The British even concluded their mauling at Lexington and Concord was a fluke, but two months later in Boston, the Battle of Bunker Hill proved them wrong — the Americans not only could fight, they could fight well.

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“WITH FIRE AND SWORD” is Harpswell author James Nelson’s fifth non-fiction book, and fourth book about the American Revolution.  He has written a total of 16 novels and histories, including two award-winning books — the Civil War novel, “GLORY IN THE NAME,” and the non-fiction “REIGN OF IRON,” about Civil War ironclads.

Most appealing is Nelson’s refreshing ability to write about historical events and people and bring them to life. He makes history entertaining, exciting and fascinating.  Here, he smartly lays out the background of events leading up to open warfare in 1775, focusing primarily on the importance of the Battle of Bunker Hill as the first deliberate, set-piece battle of the revolution.

Nelson’s vivid and colorful narrative explains the confusion over the actual battle site on the hills above Charlestown — (Was it Breed’s Hill or Bunker Hill?) — but, more importantly, he reveals the intriguing circumstances that caused the battle to be fought there at all.

He also deftly describes the arrogance and incompetence of British generals and the blunders of American generals, as well as the courage and discipline of the redcoats who were slaughtered in repeated frontal assaults on a fortified position defended by steadfast colonials.
 

At day’s end on June 17, 1775, the British captured the redoubt and held the field, but their casualties were horrendous. Bunker Hill was truly an American victory.
 

RUNNING HOMELESS
  By Al Lamanda
  Five Star, 2011
  291 pages, $25.95
  ISBN 978-1-4328-2538-6
 
John Tibbets is the U.S. government’s deadliest assassin, the star product of a secret, experimental program to produce programmable hit men who feel no pain, have no conscience and best of all, have no memory for what they have done. 

But when Tibbets starts killing bad guys and good guys, the feds realize they have a big problem — John Tibbets is out of their control.

“RUNNING HOMELESS” is Maine author Al Lamanda’s second thriller, following “WALKING HOMELESS” (Five Star, 2010), where he introduced John Tibbets as an amnesiac killer. Now, however, something is wrong. Tibbets has somehow skipped a control feature during an assignment, wiping out the targeted drug lords, but also the FBI team sent to recover him.

This is an original story, loaded with action and suspense, and crisply told. Lamanda has a keen imagination and an eye for chase scenes, gunfights and intricate plots, carefully leaving clues for both Tibbets and the reader to figure out.

When the super-secret government agency discovers that Tibbets will not respond to the control cues of his programmed hypnotic state, its top brass panics. 

Without control, Tibbets will regain his memory and it would be disastrous if he remembered — and then talked about — all the illegal things he has done for the government. Tibbets must be eliminated with “extreme prejudice.”
 

As Tibbets’s memory slowly returns in bits and pieces, he goes on the run, knowing people are after him, but not yet knowing why.  His lethal skills and fieldcraft, however, do not fail him, and he avoids pursuit, traps, and ambushes, leaving more dead bodies behind him and more questions ahead of him. 

Two government agents, Freeman and Farris, desperately want Tibbets dead, but for very different reasons, and they are both wrong.

And then Tibbets remembers everything.

— Bill Bushnell lives and writes in Harpswell.