A King's Commander (Alan Lewrie Naval Series #7)

by Dewey Lambdin

Overview

It's 1793 and Alan Lewrie is now commander of HMS Jester, an 18-gun sloop. After handily thrashing the French at the Battle of the First of June, Lewrie sails into Corsica only to receive astonishing orders. He must lure his archenemy, French commander Guillaume Choundas, into battle and personally strike the malevolent spymaster dead. With Horatio Nelson as his squadron commander on one hand and a luscious courtesan who spies for the French on the other, Lewrie must pull out all the stops if he's going to live up to his own reputation and bring glory to the British Royal Navy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590131305
Publisher:	Globe Pequot Publishing
Publication date:	01/01/2008
Series:	Alan Lewrie Naval Series , #7
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	445
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.85(d)
Lexile:	960L (what's this?)

About the Author

Dewey Lambdin has been a sailor since 1976 and has also worked as a director, writer, and producer in television and advertising. He is a member of the U.S. Naval Institute, the Cousteau Society, and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and is a Friend of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England. Besides the Alan Lewrie series, he is also the author of What Lies Buried: A Novel of Old Cape Fear. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Editorial Reviews

Fast-moving at sea, nicely lewd ashore, a hugely likeable hero, a huge cast of sharply drawn supporting characters; there’s nothing missing. Wonderful stuff.

Kirkus Reviews

His mastery of period naval warfare gives his battles real punch.

Publishers Weekly

If Horatio Hornblower is the gentleman’s sailor and Jack Aubrey is the thinking man’s sailor, Lewrie is of and for the working class. Pugnacious and randy, he’s a refreshing sea breeze.

San Jose Mercury News

You could get addicted to this series. Easily.

New York Times Book Review

Stunning naval adventure, reeking of powder and mayhem. I wish I had written this series.

Bernard Cornwell

"You could get addicted to this series. Easily." —The New York Times Book Review





"Another rowdy cruise for the immensely appealing Lewrie, with almost two decades to go in the Anglo-French belligerency." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Scapegrace British naval officer Alan Lewrie (H.M.S. Cockerel, 1995, etc.) sails into troubled waters during the third year of England's war with revolutionary France.

In the spring of 1794, Lewrie leaves Portsmouth for the Mediterranean at the helm of his first command, an 18-gun sloop renamed Jester after its capture from the French. Arriving in Corsica, he renews acquaintance with the luscious Phoebe Aretino, the demimondaine who loved and lost one of Lewrie's fallen shipmates. Rousted from his cozy love, the lusty captain (whose wife and children cause him manageable pangs of remorse) joins a Genoa-based squadron (led by the young, aggressive Horatio Nelson) on blockade duty offshore northern Italy. Eager for glory, not to mention prize money, Lewrie assaults a coastal town garrisoned by French troops, silencing its harbor battery and seizing a string of supply vessels. Initially pleased by his subordinate's bold stroke, Nelson distances himself in the wake of atrocity allegations; besides, the unfounded reports make Lewrie easy prey for Zachariah Twigg, a Foreign Office intelligence operative. The raid also alerts Guillaume Choundras, a vindictive Breton with whom Lewrie has crossed swords before, to the hapless captain's whereabouts. To plant misinformation in the right circles and lure his old foe into battle, Lewrie is obliged to bed Claudia Mastandrea, an aristocratic courtesan who spies for the French. Surprised by Phoebe at this pastime, Lewrie slinks back to sea, where he indeed catches up with the villainous Choundras. After an exciting shallow-water chase, he follows the former privateer onto the beach at Vado Bay, where the Austrians are massing for an attack on French occupation forces. Having chased his quarry far inland, Lewrie fells him with a single shot from a long rifle; believing Choundras dead, the resilient mariner returns to the good ship Jester for a long voyage home.

Another rowdy cruise for the immensely appealing Lewrie, with almost two decades to go in the Anglo-French belligerency.

Kirkus Reviews