James L. Haley Books In Order

Publication Order of Bliven Putnam Naval Adventure Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Bridwell Texas History Books

James L. Haley
James L. Haley is the award winning writer of the “Bliven Putnam Naval Adventure” series, as well as numerous books about Texas, Native American, and Western history, and contemporary and historical fiction.

Both of his biographies “Wolf: The Lives of Jack London” and “Sam Houston” won the Spur Award form the Western Writers of America. “Passionate Nation: The Epic History of Texas” won the Fehrenbach Award of the Texas Historical Commission.

He went to L. D. Bell High School in Hurst, Texas, and graduated with a degree in political science from the University of Texas at Arlington. James also attended the University of Texas School of Law for two years before he resigned in order to become a full time author.

“The Shores of Tripoli A Darker Sea” is the first novel in the “Bliven Putnam Naval Adventure” series and was released in 2016. The year is 1801 and President Thomas Jefferson has just assembled a deep water navy in order to fight the growing threat that piracy poses. This is while American civilians are regularly getting kidnapped by Islamist brigands and then held for ransom, killed, or enslaved, all at their whim of their captors. The Berber States of North Africa, particularly Tripoli, claimed that their faith had given them the right to pillage anybody that didn’t submit to their religion.

Great nephew of Revolutionary War hero Israel Putnam, Bliven Putnam, is headed for the Mediterranean and a desperate battle with Tripoli, the pirate ship. He later comes back under legendary Commodore Edward Preble upon the Constitution, and he marches across the Libyan desert with General Eaton to assault Derna, learning all of the lessons about life and war, are not at all what he was expecting.

Cracking with high wire action and rich in historical detail, this brings this amazing period of American history to life with brilliant clarity.

“A Darker Sea” is the second novel in the “Bliven Putnam Naval Adventure” series and was released in 2017. Featuring Commander Bliven Putnam, and chronicling the build up to the largest military conflict between Britain and the United States: the War of 1812.

At the War of 1812’s opening, the British control the most powerful navy on the planet, and Americans are victims of piracy again. Bliven Putnam, late of the Battle of Tripoli, has been dispatched to Charleston in order to outfit and take command of, the USS Tempest, this new 20 gun brig. Later, on board the Constitution, he sails right into the furious early fighting of this war.

Bliven, while prowling the South Atlantic in the Tempest, takes prizes and disrupts British merchant shipping, until he gets overmatched, overhauled, and then disastrously defeated by the HMS Java, the frigate. Its captain is Lord Arthur Kington, whom Bliven previously had disastrously met back in Naples.

On board he finds Sam Bandy, his old friend, one of the Java’s pressed American seamen that was kidnapped into service for the British. Their whispered plans to foment a mutiny among the captives might see them both hang, when the Constitution looms over the horizon for one of the most famous battles in the War of 1812 in this novel’s high wire and gripping conclusion. With guns blazing and exquisite detail, this novel illuminates an unforgettable period of American history.

“The Devil in Paradise” is the third novel in the “Bliven Putnam Naval Adventure” series and was released in 2019. Captain Putnam returns and this time he’s venturing into the Pacific in order to fight pirates in Malaya and match wits with the royals in Hawaii.

The United States, following the naval victories of the Second Barbary War and the War of 1812, is finally expanding its navy in order to take its rightful place of prominence in world affairs. Bliven Putnam, who is now the Captain of the sloop of war Rappahannock, has come into his own as a leader and has been ordered to head to the Pacific. However with a new tour of duty to run more than two years, Clarity (his most patient wife), puts her foot down finally, because she’s unwilling to accept such a short time together. If she cannot keep Putnam with her, then she will need to go with him.

While Putnam sails for his new home port in Honolulu, Clarity joins this new missionary effort from Boston to Hawaii. The Putnams, on their respective paths encounter this new brand of pirate and meet Kahumanu (an unexpected force of nature), the Hawaiian Islands’ formidable queen.

Inspired by the real life Olowalu Massacre and the famed Congregationalist mission of 1819, this third story is going to be unlike anything that the Putnams have faced before this.

“The Devil in Paradise” is the fourth novel in the “Bliven Putnam Naval Adventure” series and was released in 2020. Captain Putnam is embedding himself within this top secret mission during the Texas Revolution which puts everything on the line.

Having spent the previous few years in the Caribbean, Captain Putnam is all but ready to just retire and settle down back at his home in Connecticut with Clarity, his wife. However while the Texas Revolution ignites and tensions in the Gulf of Mexico continue rising, he’s sent orders for a secret cruise which could decide the fate of their whole rebellion. American settlers in Texas have just revolted against an increasingly tyrannical Mexican government. As the Texans have this small army under Sam Houston’s command, their navy’s practically nonexistent, which is a dangerous and insurmountable disadvantage while the Mexican invasion is supplied by sea.

United States President Andrew Jackson, unable to risk American neutrality, hand selects Putnam in order to lead this secret mission which may just turn the tide: in Putnam’s now aging sloop-of-war Rappahannock, disguised with the Republic of Texas flag, he has to venture into the waters of the Gulf and intercept some Mexican armaments, not just battling against the Mexican navy, but also incurring the wrath of the American shippers and insurance companies that are favoring Mexico. Reunited with Sam Bandy, his old buddy, Putnam teams with Sam Houston to run this operation, all as the bloodiest battles of the whole Revolution rage.