Enjoy the sea adventures featuring the crew of the Coast Guard patrol boat Kauai. After completing an extremely sensitive and hazardous mission to avert a nuclear war, Kauai is upgraded with black budget funds by the Director of National Intelligence. Her new mission? Respond quickly and covertly for sensitive missions the Navy cannot handle in southern Florida, The Bahamas, and the Caribbean.

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Dagger Quest

An aging Coast Guard patrol boat is all that stands between the world and nuclear annihilation

The world is on the brink of war, with NATO mobilizing to counter a Russian threat to Poland and Lithuania and leaders openly discussing war options. Meanwhile, a Russian bomber collides with a U.S. fighter off Florida causing the accidental launch of a nuclear-tipped Kinzhal hypersonic missile. Afterward, the Coast Guard cutter Kauai, on a routine patrol, finds a drug-laden sailboat smashed and adrift north of the Florida Keys. The boat’s damage is from a near miss by the Russian missile which has not harmlessly flown deep into the Gulf of Mexico as initially thought, but crashed somewhere in the Keys.

The find draws in a mysterious Defense Intelligence Agency officer, who will oversee the search for the warhead. It also draws the attention of the crime syndicate who were smuggling the drugs on the damaged boat.

Thus, the Coast Guard crew enters a race against a vicious and powerful international crime syndicate to find and recover the Russian nuclear warhead before its discovery can trigger World War III.

Exploring the friendship and teamwork of a typical ship’s crew, in the face of unexpected and hazardous challenges, Dagger Quest provides a fast-paced, taut story – excellent fare for both sea adventures and military thriller fans.

Dagger Quest cover — "A highly entertaining cross between a seafaring adventure and a high-stakes military drama. At a time of wildly unstable geopolitics, this novel will hit home for contemporary readers. The authenticity of the prose and the detailed technical writing makes readers forget this isn’t a direct account of an international incident, while the dialogue is snappy and believable, and the narration keeps the suspense at a fever pitch to the very end."
**Self-Publishing Review**

Caribbean Counterstrike

It’s the deadliest nerve gas ever made, and it has fallen into the hands of a murderous Caribbean drug cult!

The criminal 252 Syndicate has developed a game-changing battlefield nerve gas in a secret lab hidden on an oil rig servicing ship. But the ship has been caught in a drug war in a Caribbean country, seized by one of the most vicious drug cartels in existence, and held for ransom.

Alerted afterward by a defecting 252 member, the U.S. government has no good options. Despite the peril of leaving a weapon of mass destruction in the hands of psychotics, it cannot mount an airstrike or an armed raid on a nominally friendly country. Additionally, there is no time for diplomatic action that preserves the secret of the new weapon—the 252s will launch their own attack in five days.

The best of the bad options is a covert raid led by young Coast Guard Officer Ben Wyporek and his crew aboard the newly-upgraded, stealth-equipped Cutter Kauai. However, Ben’s last lethal encounter with the 252s has cured his hunger for glory, and he has found his soulmate in the beautiful genius DIA analyst Victoria Carpenter.

It is yet another deadly race against the 252s to save the world, and now Ben and Victoria have everything to lose. Enjoy the second of the sea adventures in the Cutter Kauai Series!

Bravely and Faithfully

A new captain’s first patrol turns into a fight for their lives

Kauai‘s captain, Sam Powell, has received a well-deserved promotion and a new assignment to the Naval War College. Although his replacement, young Coast Guard Lieutenant Haley Reardon, has not even gotten her feet on the ground on her new command, she finds herself and her crew supporting a dangerous covert mission.

They must insert and retrieve a Defense Intelligence Agency operations team trying to seize a transnational criminal syndicate boss from a small Caribbean island. In addition to the threat posed by the syndicate thugs, the island controlled by a front company of the Chinese government and protected by a superior military force.

A honeymoon period would be lovely. Nevertheless, as always, the world gets a vote.

Can Haley avoid leaving the DIA team to their fate, when attempting to rescue them could destroy her crew and boat and lead to war?

This third installment of the series conveys the humor, friendships, and teamwork of Kauai‘s crew from the previous books, with a new series of exciting sea adventures from search and rescue to combat. The crew and their new skipper must come together for the toughest mission they have ever faced.

Bravely and Faithfully cover — "A gripping high-stakes adventure on the sea, Bravely and Faithfully recounts the missions of the Cutter Kauai - a Coast Guard boat with a penchant for tackling unique operations with heroic teamwork. Lieutenant Haley Reardon assumes command of the tight-knit Kauai crew just in time for an incredibly dangerous assignment: apprehending a syndicate leader from a Chinese-controlled Haitian island. Hochsmann’s dynamic cast, energetic prose, and tense plot - showcasing everything from perilous hurricane rescues to the liberation of human trafficking victims - make this novel an enjoyable must-read for fans of character-driven military fiction."
**★★★★½ - The Independent Review of Books**

Indies Inferno

The volcano mission was only supposed to be a cover story!

In “Indies Inferno,” join the crew of the small Coast Guard cutter Kauai as they embark on an exhilarating sea adventure. Assigned to a covert intelligence operation, their mission takes an unforeseen turn when a volcanic eruption engulfs the tranquil Caribbean island of Saint Ignatius.

The story opens with a routine screening mission which turns deadly when the crew stumbles upon an eco-terrorist plot to attack an oil tanker. With their quick thinking and unwavering courage, the crew foils the nefarious plan, averting a potential environmental catastrophe.

After arresting the would-be terrorists, Kauai’s crew is assigned to a covert mission supporting a DIA operation in the Caribbean. Their cover is a geological survey mission on the beautiful island of Saint Ignatius in the U.S. Virgin Islands. But trouble follows, as they respond to a distress call from a dive boat, on fire and sinking off Grand Turk, then discover that the sleeping volcano on St. Ignatius is awaking with a vengence!

Enjoy the latest of the Kauai Sea Adventures!

This fourth novel of the series continues the humor, friendships, and teamwork of Kauai‘s crew from the previous books, with a new series of exciting actions from counterterrorism to a desperate retreat from an exploding island. Enjoy the action, the teamwork and camaraderie of the crew of Kauai as they face another deadly challenge.

Indies Inferno cover — “Riveting maritime drama with explosively high stakes and a consistent edge of gritty realism, Indies Inferno by Edward M. Hochsmann is a military procedural flavored with a romantically entangled and unforgettable crew. The experienced pros onboard the Coast Guard cutter Kauai face another deadly challenge, but outsmarting a group of radical environmentalists is just the beginning of their high-seas heroics. When a natural disaster interrupts a classified mission, the crew must balance duty to their country with the humane responsibility to preserve life. Boosted in believability by the author’s own experience, the prose is immersive, the action is steeped in authentic suspense, and the dialogue crackles with realism. Drawing on diverse themes of emotional attachment, patriotism, the trauma of disaster, and law enforcement ethics, this latest installment of Hochsmann’s series is a multifaceted and gripping read.”
**The Independent Review of Books**

"A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Miami"

Short Story Featuring Ben Wyporek

In this prequel novella, young Lieutenant Junior Grade Ben Wyporek receives orders for a short-notice transfer to his dream job – second-in-command of a Coast Guard patrol boat in the red hot operational area of South Florida.

Anxious to get to his new command, he sets out from Virginia during a winter storm and soon finds his courage tested to save a young family in distress.

Available now on Amazon Kindle and as a bonus feature in the Kauai Sea Adventures collection.