It's 1777 when Captain Jack Absolute becomes a sensation throughout London. This news comes as a shock to the real Jack Absolute when he arrives in England after four months at sea. But there's little time for outrage before he finds himself dueling for his life. Right when he thinks he's finally won, he is forced to flee London by the quickest means possible, becoming a spy in the American Revolution. From the streets of London, to the pivotal battle of Saratoga, to a hunt for a double agent in Philadelphia, this novel marks the exhilarating beginning of an epic historical series and a character you won't soon forget.

To the Reader…

What a thrill to once more be in the world of Jack Absolute! One I first entered in 1987 when I was cast to play him in Sheridan’s 18th Century comedy, ‘The Rivals’. I was thrilled! I mean, give me thigh boots and a sabre and I’m your man! Yet there was something extra about Jack - his cheekiness, his bravado, his sheer bloody joie de vivre! I toured England as him for six months and loved every swashbuckling moment. And when I was done I mourned him for months.

But then I found a way to live him again. After my first two novels were released, my publishers asked me what I wanted to write next. Without hesitation I said ‘Jack Absolute’. ‘Who’s he?’ they asked. Well, I knew he couldn’t simply be the roguish, dashing lover of the play. So I replied, ‘He’s the Double ‘O’ Seven of the 1770’s’.

What fun I have had, making him everything I could ever want to be: a knight, a sportsman, a spy, a cavalry officer… an adopted Mohawk! A man with an eye for the ladies – and a knack of choosing exactly the wrong one! He is a stirring of Bond, a dash of Hawkeye, a pinch of Aubrey. Yet above all he is his own man: flawed, funny – and forever pissed off that Sheridan stole his name and put him into a play!

I, on the other hand, am not!

C.C. Humphreys