Imagination ... a fanciful way of escaping to a world which doesn't exist
CARIBBEAN
by J.M. Hartwig
Crossing the finish line in the Transatlantic Race allowed Aidan Grifford to tick another box on his list of ocean racing achievements. Post-race, he looks forward to several days of R and R before competing in Grenada Race Week, then setting off on the delivery trip to return Raider to Portsmouth.
The unexpected appearance of his wife, Lauren, and their daughter, Ella Rose, changes his plans and delivers several surprises, among them, the five-star luxury villa Lauren has booked to escape from England’s cold, miserable winter and spend time with her husband. That plan succeeds until Aidan learns the villa is hiding a dangerous secret.
His discovery sucks him into a world of drug trafficking, organised crime and corrupt police officers where everyone’s goal is to protect their lucrative criminal activities. Aidan’s only goal is to leave Grenada with his family unharmed and Raider intact, but will his new enemies let him go?
Book 11 in the Aidan Grifford Sailing Adventure Series
The sequel to "Fastnet"
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Also available on Kindle Unlimited
FASTNET
by J.M. Hartwig
After a Covid-enforced sojourn in New Zealand, Aidan Grifford returns to the UK to resume his racing career with Raider. With his wife, Lauren and baby daughter, Ella, in tow, his life faces new challenges. He is tested at every turn, seeking to maintain a satisfactory work-family balance in his new role as a father, adjusting to life in the UK, managing difficult family relationships, and preparing Raider and its new crew for the Fastnet.
When old enemies resurface, Aidan knows trouble is brewing. The appearance of his old friend, Richard Goldsmith, confirms that the trouble will have dangerous consequences. The discovery of a corporate spy inside Challenge Yacht Charters exposes a threat that draws Aidan back into a world he promised Lauren he would leave behind.
More nefarious plots and twists are exposed during the lead-up races to the Fastnet. Aidan knows it will be a tough race, but when his nemesis finally confronts him, he is taken to the brink in a desperate fight for survival.
Book 10 in the Aidan Grifford Sailing Adventure Series
The sequel to "Southern Cross"
Ebook & Paperback available from Amazon / Kindle
Also available on Kindle Unlimited
Ebook & Paperback available from Amazon / Kindle
Also available on Kindle Unlimited
SOUTHERN CROSS
by J.M. Hartwig
With Raider en route to the UK, Aidan Grifford packs up his life in Australia, and with his wife, Lauren, delivers his boat Seabird to its new home in New Zealand. Halfway across the Tasman Sea, he receives word that the Covid-19 virus has shut the world down. New Zealand and Australia have closed their borders, leaving Aidan and Lauren in limbo at sea.
They are eventually allowed to enter New Zealand. However, with the country in lockdown to contain the virus, their plans to move to the UK to resume Raider's racing program are shattered, and they are forced to stay in New Zealand until the borders reopen.
Out of the blue, Aidan is approached by the CEO of Australia's America's Cup Syndicate. He needs a helmsman for their trial boat to assist the team's race boat, Southern Cross, to prepare for the 2021 America's Cup in Auckland.
With his career as Raider's skipper on hold indefinitely, it's an opportunity too good to refuse. However, Aidan's involvement in the elite world of America's Cup racing turns into a double-edged sword. He is sucked into the murky underworld of money laundering and international gambling rings where money is a dirty word and losing is a winner's game.
Book 9 in the Aidan Grifford Sailing Adventure Series
The sequel to "Transpac"
TRANSPAC
by J.M. Hartwig
Raider is now part of the Challenge Yacht Charters team, and after eighteen successful months racing in Australia, Aidan Grifford decides to test the boat on the international scene. He sets his sights on the 2019 Transpac and ships the boat to the USA to compete in the biennial race from Los Angeles to Hawaii.
The Transpac is the longest and toughest race Aidan has competed in, and Raider is touted as a line honours contender. He maps out a meticulous plan that he hopes will deliver a victory, but not everyone is happy to see Raider racing in America.
Aidan's plan begins to unravel when one crew member fails to arrive and a spy for the opposition is discovered in the team. He struggles to keep his race campaign on track, but when he discovers that someone from his past has a score to settle, Aidan must deal with potentially deadly consequences that test his limits of endurance and threaten everything he has.
Book 8 in the Aidan Grifford Sailing Adventure Series
The sequel to "Raider"
Ebook & Paperback available from Amazon / Kindle
Also available on Kindle Unlimited
Ebook & paperback available
from Amazon / Kindle
Also available on Kindle Unlimited
RAIDER
by J.M. Hartwig
Aidan Grifford finally has the opportunity to drive the boat of his dreams. Raider is eighty-eight feet of high-tech carbon fibre maxi yacht. It’s the perfect tool to give the top end of IRC racing a shake-up, and at Raider’s helm, Aidan has his eye on one prize: a line honours win in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.
However, to win the race, he has to finish, and there’s an obstacle in the shape of Raider’s new naming rights sponsor, Ocean Recycling International. The deal is worth millions of dollars, and the collaboration between ORI and a high-profile ocean racing yacht is viewed as the perfect corporate partnership.
Aidan soon becomes suspicious of ORI’s motives for sponsoring Raider. When he discovers ORI is not as “green” as their propaganda suggests, he wants out of the sponsorship deal before his and Raider’s reputations are tarnished. When accidents happen, Aidan is dragged into an international recycling scam with life-threatening consequences for him and potentially catastrophic consequences for the oceans he races on. Can he prevent an environmental disaster and achieve his dream of winning the Sydney to Hobart?
Book 7 in the Aidan Grifford Sailing Adventure Series
The sequel to "Black Diamond"
BLACK DIAMOND
by J.M. Hartwig
Every sailor dreams of driving a high-performance, hundred-foot super maxi racing yacht. When Black Diamond is dangled in front of Aidan Grifford, it’s a career opportunity he cannot ignore. Aidan and his fiancé, Lauren McLeod, travel to England to finalise the purchase of their new boat, but they soon discover that Black Diamond is not all it’s cracked up to be in the boat’s glossy sales brochure.
When Aidan looks at other boats, accidents happen, boats are sabotaged, and people are hurt … and worse. After Aidan’s boss refuses to give up his dream of owning a super maxi, Aidan is dragged into the dangerous world of Black Diamond’s wealthy owner. He soon learns that backing out of the deal has life-threatening consequences. Is Black Diamond worth the risk?
Book 6 in the Aidan Grifford Sailing Adventure Series
The sequel to "Zulu"
Ebook & paperback available
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Also available on Kindle Unlimited
ZULU
by J.M. Hartwig
Zulu is a big, black, high-performance racing yacht. With Aidan Grifford at the helm, it wins more races than it loses. On the Australian IRC racing scene, this is a recipe for making enemies.
When Aidan’s enemies emerge during the Brisbane to Gladstone Yacht Race, he is unprepared for the lengths they go to or the trail of human carnage they create in their quest to bring him down.
Discovering the identities of his enemies threatens Aidan’s career, his relationship with fellow sailor Lauren McLeod, and his life, and draws him into a web of revenge and retribution which has its roots buried in his past.
Book 5 in the Aidan Grifford Sailing Adventure Series
The sequel to "Mistraal"
Ebook & paperback available
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Also available on Kindle Unlimited
MISTRAAL
by J. M. Hartwig
Aidan Grifford follows his life’s “master plan” and returns to the UK to resume his career in the Royal Navy. He finds himself at a soul-destroying crossroads when his career is unexpectedly terminated. His girlfriend leaves him, and he’s given up his job and left his boat in Australia. With only his family to keep him in the UK, he realises going home was a mistake. He returns to Australia, restarts his boat delivery business and resumes his search for a new boat to race on.
He meets Bill Hollis, the owner/skipper of a Cookson 50 called Mistraal and part-owner of Liberty Yachts, a luxury boat building company on Queensland’s Gold Coast. Bill needs a trimmer for Mistraal. It’s not the position Aidan wanted, but he joins the crew, hoping it will lead to more opportunities. However, all is not as it seems. As he learns more about Mistraal’s crew and Bill’s business activities, he discovers a sinister secret buried deep within Liberty Yachts that has life-threatening consequences.
Book 4 in the Aidan Grifford Sailing Adventure Series
The sequel to "The Getaway"
Ebook & paperback available
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Also available on Kindle Unlimited
THE GETAWAY
by J.M. Hartwig
After working as a charter boat skipper in Cairns, Lieutenant Aidan Grifford took a leave of absence from the Royal Navy and set off to see Australia. An experienced sailor, “seeing the sights” provided plenty of opportunities to engage in his passion ... yacht racing. However, the top end of IRC yacht racing is a rich man’s game, and Aidan is not rich. His most valuable possession is a twenty-five-year-old yacht that he has painstakingly restored.
Aidan accepts an invitation to race in the Whitsunday regattas, but crewing on The Getaway at Hamilton Island Race Week brings him more trouble than he bargained for. The regatta is a life-changing experience, and Aidan soon discovers the changes are not for the best.
When The Getaway is found drifting and abandoned seventy miles offshore, Aidan’s connection to the yacht attracts the attention of a wealthy and powerful underworld crime boss who sucks him into a liquid quagmire of organised crime, personal vendettas and violent consequences.
Book 3 in the Aidan Grifford Sailing Adventure Series
The sequel to "Maverick"
Reader Reviews for THE GETAWAY ...
GRAND YARN - "Great to find a sailing adventure with really authentic technical detail and realistic characters. Good plot, too!! I'll be buying the rest of Hartwig's books." - Mr David G. M. Platten, Cornwall, UK (via Amazon)
A GREAT READ - "To anyone who knows boats the author puts you right there both at the helm or on the bridge. Sorry it ended!" - Alan Lewis, UK (via Amazon)
"This is a super read by a guy that really knows his sailing and a really hard to put down book." - dog iover, UK (via Amazon)
FIVE STARS - "A very good book. Well written." - Brian Boardmann, UK (via Amazon)
FIVE STARS - "An exciting novel; very gripping." - Sailwatch, UK (via Amazon)
"It's a good read, maybe because I like sailing." - Tim Finch, UK (via Amazon)
FIVE STARS - "Good read." - Hasler, UK (via Amazon)
Ebook & paperback available
from Amazon / Kindle
Also available on Kindle Unlimited
MAVERICK
by J. M. Hartwig
Lieutenant Aidan Grifford, RN, is on his final patrol as Executive Officer of the Royal Australian Navy patrol boat HMAS Gladstone. The ship is tasked to find a vessel engaged in piracy and illegal smuggling activities in the Coral Sea between Townsville and Cape York. The pursuit is ultimately fruitless, and it’s not how Aidan wanted to end his two-year exchange with the RAN. However, once he’s out of uniform and off the naval base, the pirates’ activities are no longer his problem … or so he thought.
With his future in the Royal Navy under a cloud, Aidan applies to transfer permanently to the RAN. The transfer will take time, but he likes the carefree Australian lifestyle and life in Cairns. Crewing on a friend’s sports boat leads to a job skippering a charter boat ... and more encounters with the pirates.
Then Aidan is offered a job skippering Maverick, a luxury 72-foot charter yacht that takes tourists to remote islands and coral reefs on the Great Barrier Reef. It’s a dream job, but when the pirate threat escalates, he is forced to risk everything to save Maverick and stop the pirates.
Book 2 in the Aidan Grifford Sailing Adventure Series
The sequel to "Without A Trace"
Ebook & paperback available
from Amazon / Kindle
Also available on Kindle Unlimited
WITHOUT A TRACE
by J.M. Hartwig
Lieutenant Aidan Grifford is the navigation officer on a Royal Navy frigate and likes his life exactly how it is. Until an ex-girlfriend asks for help to escape an abusive husband and drags him into more trouble than he bargained for.
When her body is found in a stolen car, Aidan unwittingly becomes the prime suspect for her murder. He knows who killed her, but when the hunter becomes the hunted, Aidan finds himself embroiled in a series of events far beyond his life experience.
Faced with losing his career and the woman he loves, Aidan is hell-bent on revenge and sets out to make the cause of his problems disappear without a trace.
Book 1 in the Aidan Grifford Sailing Adventure Series
Reader Reviews for WITHOUT A TRACE ...
A GOOD READ - "A good read ... if you take it on holiday, you may well stay by the pool for several days!! Worth reading." - Boating Enthusiast, UK (via Amazon)
FIVE STARS - "Another must read book. Hard to put down." - dog iover, UK (via Amazon)
THOROUGHLY ENJOYABLE - "As with the other books in the Grifford series it was a compelling read to the end. Look forward to more." - quasimodo, UK (via Amazon)
Ebook & paperback available
from Amazon / Kindle