Beneath the Aurora: #12 A Nathaniel Drinkwater Novel

The year is 1813. The United States has entered the war against England, but it is a peculiar war with U.S. merchants still supplying English armies in Spain. Royal Navy Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is now assigned to the Admiralty in London, occupying the intelligence office previously headed by the late Lord Dalgarth. Napoleon's armies have been losing battles. Some of his allies have been looking towards their own futures as Napoleon's empire crumbles. Napoleon's puppet King of Naples has sent a secret emissary to England. A plan is revealed to supply arms for a rebellion in Canada. Drinkwater obtains orders to take a frigate into waters of Danish occupied Norway. His mission is to intercept the arms shipment. There are complications. French and American agents in England, aided by people with Republican sympathies and people who can be bribed, have obtained the details of Drinkwater's plans. There are also unknown agents who have infiltrated his crew. There is a battle, of course, and victory at a price. The hero survives, of course, as he must be around for the next novel, but others around him are casualties. The end was a bit disappointing. I had thought that guilty parties might be hanged. Perhaps Drinkwater is a bit too sympathetic. And all that gold. Remembering that the young Drinkwater was not averse to helping himself (see Eye of the Fleet), one is left to wonder. Gold sovereigns, at least, were highly negotiable.