Troubled Waters

Alan Lewrie is certainly burdened with more than any average mortal could endure, but somehow he manages to not just survive, but to actually enjoy life--in spades, hawn hawn!!!

I've been reading the Alan Lewrie series for quite a while, and they always manage to please. This one throws in a bunch on English social color and commonlaw procedure as well as the usual Lewrie derring-do at sea, ashore, and at home. Read it!

I really enjoy this author's books. None of the Alan Lewrie books have been a disappointment. They are a clever, witty story that leave you excited for the next installment in the series. If you're looking for a story with lots of cannon fire, smoke, guns and swords crossed then look no futher. Be sure to start at the beginning of the series with book #1 Kings Coat.

The entire Alan Lewrie series is immensely readable and enjoyable. It is, of course, not brilliant, high brow "naval adventure literature" like O'Brian but it doesn't try to be. It is simply rollicking action packed good fun. To be fully appreciated, this new installment (#14) should not be the first Lewrie book you should read. It is best enjoyed in the context of the full series (very highly recommended in its entirety).. I very, very seldom buy a book in hardcover -- but I did this one and will do so for #15 due, presumably, in 2010.

In the early nineteenth century as England fights Napoleon, Royal Navy Captain Alan Lewrie learns that he has been sentenced to death in absentia by a Jamaican court allegedly for stealing slaves. Those who arranged the sham trial have come to England to execute him, claiming they carry out a legal sentencing that England by law must adhere to. Meanwhile William Wilberforce and his abolitionist backers see Lewrie as an opportunity to focus on the inhumanity of slavery. They hire him a highly regarded barrister to defend him in court once his case appears on the docket. Freed because he is an aristocrat, Lewrie returns to his ship the H.M.S. Savage, blockading the seas off southwest France. Instead of sitting around, Lewrie sees a chance to cause havoc by leading a naval assault against the French coast. The Lewrie historical naval novels (see A KING'S COMMANDER and A KING'S TRADE, etc.) are always some of the best Napoleonic War military tales around. TROUBLED WATERS is much more although the at sea battles are as great as ever. However, this time the audience also gets a chance to follow the English legal system that makes the DNA double helix look like a kindergarten puzzle. Dewey Lambkin keeps his excellent series fresh and exciting. Harriet Klausner