Troubled Waters: An Alan Lewrie Naval Adventure (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures)

The fourteenth tale in Dewey Lambdins classic naval adventure series Spring of 1800 and Captain Alan Lewrie fresh from victory in the South Atlantic is reckoned a hero on a par with Nelson in all the papers. Back in England hes fitting out his new frigate HMS Savage the fruits of that victory the largest and best-armed frigate hes ever commanded. But you cant leave Lewrie ashore too long without trouble arising. A Jamaica court has tried him in absentia and sentenced him to hang for the theft of a dozen Black slaves to man his old ship HMS Proteus. A crime or was it liberation as his London barrister argues? The vengeful slaveowner Hugh Beauman has come to London to seek Lewries end . . . with or without the majesty of the Law! Then theres the matter of those anonymous letters sent to his wife Caroline portraying him as a faithless rakehell and serving up the most florid lies . . . along with some unfortunately florid truths. Lewrie appeals to the retired Foreign Office spy Zachariah Twigg to smoak out the hand that guides the poison pen even while wondering why Twigg seems so eager to help his legal case of a sudden. Is the devious old devil ready to sacrifice him for some motive of his own? A fortunate legal ruling which only delays the matter of Lewries utter ruin leaves him free to take Savage to sea upon the Kings business to join the close blockade of the Gironde River in Souwest France and plug the threat of enemy warships privateers and neutrals smuggling goods in and out of Bordeaux. It could be a dull and plodding dreariness but . . . a bored Captain Alan Lewrie safe in his post for the moment can be a dangerous fellow to his countrys foes. If only to relieve the tedium!