Stapleton Novels
6 primary works
Book 1
Set in pre-Revolutionary America, Remember the Morning tells the story of Catalyntie Van Vorst, the first in a long line of strong-minded women in the Stapleton lineage. A brilliant businesswoman, as were many of the Dutch of her era, Catalyntie is also a troubled person who struggles to resolve the conflicts created by growing up captive in a Seneca Indian village. Deeply involved in her life is the beautiful, extraordinarily gifted black woman, Clara Flowers, who shared this captivity with Catalyntie. They also share a love for the same man.
Book 2
As the British scheme to kidnap George Washington and bring the Revolutionary War to an end in one bold stroke, a tide of espionage ebbs and flows between the two opposing armies. It is 1780, and two very different men are sucked into these vicious currents. Tides that pull the men towards the bewitching embrace of Flora Kuyper, the beautiful spy who holds the future of America in her hands. This is a world of plot and counterplot, where a night of passion could lead to an act of treason and a man's avowed ideals could fashion a noose around his neck.
Book 3
This sequel to "Remember the Morning, " set between 1827 and the onset of the Civil War, recounts the romantic and political exploits of Hugh Stapleton's grandson, George, and his powerful circle of friends.
Book 4
WHEN THIS CRUEL WAR IS OVER portrays two generations of Americans struggling to make sense of a national catastrophe in the face of a future that is shot through with darkness. The time is the summer of 1864, the third year of the Civil War that has already killed a half million Americans. The place is Indiana and Kentucky, divided by the Ohio River but joined by a growing fury at the Federal government's ruthless censorship and intolerance. Janet Todd is a courier and evangelist for the Sons of Liberty, the revolutionary conspiracy which intends to unite the American heartland into a Northwest Confederacy - and stop the war. Major Paul Stapleton commands a troop of cavalrymen who hunt Union deserters. Secretly disgusted with the war, Paul is torn between his love for Janet Todd and his oath of loyalty to the Union. It is history as only Thomas Fleming can write it, laced with suspense and searing human insight, rooted in deep research and even deeper human compassion.
Book 5
1865. The Civil War is over and the South lies in ruins. But for some, the former slaveholders have not been punished enough. A cabal of powerful men, led by Charles A. Dana, the Assistant Secretary of War, plot to break the spirit of the South once and for all--by convicting General Robert E. Lee of treason and hanging him like a common criminal. To this end, they have convened a secret military tribunal in Lee's former home in Arlington, Virginia. Jeremiah O'Brien of "The New York Tribune," a long-time protege of Dana's, is the only reporter allowed to attend the trial. His exclusive reports on this momentous event, and the book he intends to write, will surely make his fortune. Yet as the trial proceeds, pitting the general against his accusers, O'Brien finds himself torn between his loyalty to Dana, his love for a beautiful Confederate spy, and his growing respect and compassion for Lee himself. The young reporter is supposed to be only an observer, but, in the end, it is O'Brien who must evaluate the evidence . . . and determine the true meaning of honor.Written by acclaimed author and historian Thomas Fleming, "The Secret Trial of Robert E. Lee" brings to life a fascinating chapter in American history that might well have happened--and perhaps truly did.
Book 6
Beautiful, rebellious Bess Fitzmaurice is mesmerized by Dan McCaffrey, an American involved in the Fenian revolt against British tyranny when he appears in her family's house on May Eve 1865. Bess and her brother Michael get Dan to a ship and sail to America. But in America in 1865 Bess discovers among the Irish Fenians that money, power and patriotism are entangled in bewildering demoralizing ways. The Fenian invasion of Canada, and their goal to hold the English colony hostage for a Free Ireland, becomes a pawn in the power struggle between Washington and New York. When the American government double - crosses the Irish movement, forcing thousands of ex-Irish Civil War veterans to retreat back to the United States, acrimony engulfs the movement, resulting in Bess' brother Michael's murder. In despair, Bess quits the Fenians, finding love in the arms of former Union General Jonathan Stapleton. But their idyll is soon invaded by Dan McCaffrey, who forces her to choose between him and her new lover