Liberty or Death: Revolutionary War Fiction Without the Bullshit
"The ghost says: You want Revolutionary War fiction? Here's what actually happened when frontier-trained killers brought asymmetric warfare to colonial cities. No tricorn hat mythology. Just rangers, spies, poison, and the mathematics of urban guerrilla combat."
What You're Getting
Two books. Historical fiction set during the American Revolution. But not the version you learned in high school.
Book 1: Boston 1773 through the opening shots. Elijah Maflour—councilman by day, frontier warrior with a Huron tomahawk scar by night—planning resistance while the British garrison thinks they control the city.
Book 2: New York 1776. Continental Army digging trenches in the rain. British fleet multiplying in the harbor like plague ships. Elijah running ranger operations while his wife Hannah infiltrates British society circles, extracting military intelligence over tea and poisoning the occasional officer.
What makes these different? No romanticized patriotism. No clean heroics. Just what happens when people who learned warfare in places where mistakes meant scalping bring those skills to urban combat.
Why These Books Work
1. Frontier Warfare Meets City Streets
Elijah Maflour isn't some gentleman revolutionary playing soldier. He's got facial scars from actual Huron combat. He's watched French soldiers march into ambushes. He knows how to move quiet and kill quieter.
Book 2, Chapter 2:
"The Mohawk had a saying: Cities are where warriors go to die badly."
Then he proceeds to prove them wrong by running ranger operations in Manhattan like it's the Pennsylvania frontier. British patrols? Predictable as sunrise. Supply convoys? Lightly defended. Officers? Arrogant enough to think red coats make them immortal.
2. Espionage Through Social Engineering
Hannah Maflour. Opening line of Chapter 3:
"Hannah Maflour had killed three men with poison and never once stained her gloves."
She's not a supporting character. She's an intelligence operative infiltrating British society as "Margaret Whitmore of Charleston"—wealthy widow with mysterious bloodlines. Gets invited to officers' wives' salons. Hears about troop movements, supply schedules, and planned retaliation campaigns over wine and gossip.
The British share military secrets because they don't think women are combatants. Fatal assumption.
3. Visceral Combat Writing
No clean musket duels. No honorable surrenders. Just this:
Book 2, Chapter 4 - Night raid on British supply convoy:
"Pike's tomahawk finding the throat of a sentry who'd stepped outside to relieve himself. No scream, just the wet sound of steel parting flesh and another British soldier learning the cost of imperial service."
Seven rangers. Twenty supply wagons. Six British guards who prioritized comfort over security during a thunderstorm.
Result: Seven dead redcoats, captured ammunition, and the entire convoy burned while British reinforcements watched from a distance.
4. No Mythology, Just Mathematics
The books don't pretend the Continental Army had a chance through courage alone. The math is brutal:
- British fleet: 112 ships (and counting)
- Flagship: 74 guns
- Two ships-of-the-line: 64 guns each
- Plus frigates, transports, and enough professional soldiers to level Manhattan
Continental response? Dig trenches in the mud. Run intelligence operations. Hit supply lines. Make the British pay for every inch while knowing you're outgunned, outmanned, and probably going to lose.
That's what makes it interesting. Asymmetric warfare against overwhelming odds. Ranger tactics vs. professional military science. Information warfare before anyone called it that.
What You Actually Read
Book 1: The Powder Keg
Setting: Boston 1773, pre-Revolutionary tension
Plot: Elijah Maflour planning resistance (Boston Tea Party setup) while maintaining his councilman cover. British garrison thinks they control the city. They're wrong.
Key scenes:
- War room with maps and hidden weapons
- Internal conflict between "civilized councilman" and "frontier warrior"
- Historical detail about the mechanics of organizing colonial resistance
Voice: Gritty. Direct. Historical without being dry. Sentences like:
"Boston Harbor stank of empire."
Book 2: The Anvil
Setting: New York 1776, British invasion imminent
Plot: Three narrative threads:
- Elijah - Running ranger operations, recruiting networks, coordinating intelligence
- Hannah - Infiltrating British society, extracting military secrets, occasional murder
- Continental Army - Building defenses, deserting in the rain, facing impossible odds
Key scenes:
