Alan Lewrie Series Bks 13 - 22 - Dewey Lambdin

Written by Dewey Lambdin
Read by John Lee
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Unabridged

Book 13: A King’s Trade

“The powder-packed thirteenth installment in a classic naval adventure series.
“
Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy, is just discovering the truth of the old adage that “No Good Deed Goes Unpunished!”
After a bout of Yellow Fever decimated the crew of Lewrie’s HMS “Proteus “in 1797, it had “seemed “like a knacky idea to abscond with a dozen slaves from a coastal Jamaican plantation to help man his frigate, a grand jape on their purse-proud master and a “righteous “act, to boot. But now . . . two years later, the embittered Beauman clan at last suspects Lewrie of the deed. Slave-stealing is a hanging offense, and suddenly Alan Lewrie’s neck is at risk of a fatal stretching!
Patrons finagle an official escape from Jamaica to England, where the nefarious and manipulative master Foreign Office spy, Zachariah Twigg, is just “too “nice and helpful to be credited on his behalf, arranging a long voyage even further out of the law’s reach, to Cape Town and India, as escort to an East India Company convoy led by one of Lewrie’s old captains, who “still “despises him worse than cold, boiled mutton!
To the Cape of Good Hope, where French cruisers prowl, where a British circus and theatrical troupe joins the convoy, just teeming with tempting female acrobats, nubile young bareback riders, and alluring “actresses” like the seductive but deadly archer, Eudoxia Durschenko!
It will take all Lewrie’s shrewd guile, wit, low cunning, and steely self-control to worm his way out of trouble, this time, and keep his breeches chastely buttoned up to avoid even more troubles . . . or will he?
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Book 14: Troubled Waters

The fourteenth tale in Dewey Lambdin’s 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, he’s fitting out his new frigate, HMS Savage, the fruits of that victory, the largest and best-armed frigate he’s ever commanded. But you can’t 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 Lewrie’s end . . . with or without the majesty of the Law!

Then there’s 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 Lewrie’s utter ruin, leaves him free to take Savage to sea upon the King’s business, to join the close blockade of the Gironde River in Sou’west 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 country’s foes. If only to relieve the tedium!
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Book 15: The Baltic Gambit

January 1801, and Captain Alan Lewrie, RN, known as “St. Alan the Liberator” for freeing (stealing!) a dozen black slaves on Jamaica to man his frigate years before, is at last being brought to trial for it, with his life on the line. At the same time, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia are forming a League of Armed Neutrality, to Napoleon Bonaparte’s delight, to deny Great Britain their vital exports, even if it means war. England will need all her experienced sea dogs, but … even Alan Lewrie?

Ultimately Lewis is acquitted, but he’s also ignored by the Navy, so it’s half-pay on “civvy street” for him, and with idle time on his mischievous hands, Lewrie is sure to get himself in trouble—again!—especially if there are young women and his wastrel public school friends involved…and they are! A brawl in a Panton Saint brothel, a drunk, infatuated young Russian count, precede Lewrie’s summons to Admiralty and the command of the Thermopylae frigate to replace an ill captain as the fleet gathers to face down the League of the North, and its instigator, the mad Tsar Paul.

Lewrie must take the Thermopylae into the Baltic in the dead of winter, alone and with no support, to scout the enemy fleets and iced-in harbours, deal with a fellow officer who is less of a friend than he thought, and be saddled with a pair of Russian noblemen as a last-minute peace delegation, but if the wily Foreign Office spy-master, Zachariah Twigg, sent them, what else might their mission be?

All that and the Battle of Copenhagen, too, and it’s broadsides at close quarters, and treachery for Lewrie, forcing him to use all his wiles to survive!
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Book 16: King, Ship And Sword

THE SIXTEENTH TALE IN DEWEY LAMBDIN’S CLASSIC NAVAL ADVENTURE SERIES

December 1801. The Peace of Amiens end the long war with Napoleon Bonaparte’s France, but Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy, is appalled by its consequences. First, he’s been in the Navy since 1780 (most unwillingly, most of the time!) and at sea for the better part of nine years, since 1793, so what is a dashing and successful frigate captain to “do” with himself, if he’s ashore on half-pay, and if so, for how “long”?

Second, and even worse, is “where” will Lewrie twiddle his thumbs and be bored to death until the war begins again, as he’s sure it will? Will he idle in expensive, exciting London, or go home to his rented farm in Anglesgreen in Surrey, and rejoin his wife and in-laws who (mostly) despise him like the Devil hates Holy Water, where he knows as much of agriculture and animal husbandry as his two pet cats do of celestial navigation?

Peace and domesticity are hellish-hard on the rakehells!

Yet by the spring of 1802, Lewrie and his Caroline have “somewhat” reconciled (again) and are off to make a go of a second honeymoon - in Paris, France, of all places! But Lewrie’s notion to return the swords captured from deceased French officers to their kinfolk gets turned into a formal presentation at a levee in the Tuileries, and a face-to-face rencontre with the First Consul Napoleon Bonaparte. Lewrie “can’t help” spurring him into a “kick-furniture” rage, and he and Caroline must flee for their lives, with aid from the most unlikely source imaginable.

When war breaks out again in May of 1803, Lewrie has fresh orders, a new frigate, and a chance to punish and pursue the French, but it’s no longer for Duty or King and Country - now it’s personal!
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Book 17: The Invasion Year

The Invasion Year” is the seventeenth tale in Dewey Lambdin’s smashing naval adventure series.”

For a fellow like Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy, who despises the French worse than the Devil hates Holy Water, it’s hellish-hard to gain a reputation for saving them, not once but twice, when the French refugees from Haiti surrender to England rather than the vengeful ex-slave armies in November of 1803!

After that, it could be “all claret and cruising” in the Caribbean, but for a home-bound sugar convoy, one so frustrating as to make even the happy-go-lucky Alan Lewrie tear his hair out, kick furniture, and curse like . . . well, like a sailor!

Back in England for the first time in two years, there are honors from the Crown for gallant service . . . a lot more than he expected from King George III, who was having a bad morning, then a chance to move in Society after an introduction to an intriguing daughter of a peer. But then come secret orders to experiment with several types of “infernal engines of war,” which might delay or postpone the dreaded cross-Channel invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte, his huge army, and his thousands of invasion craft. For the rest of 1804, Alan Lewrie and his crew of the Reliant frigate will deal with things more dangerous to them than they may prove to be to the French!
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Book 18: Reefs And Shoals

Pity poor Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy! He’s been wind-muzzled for weeks in Portsmouth, snugly tucked into a warm shore bed with lovely, and loving, Lydia Stangbourne, a Viscount’s daughter, and beginning to enjoy indulging his idle streak, when Admiralty tears Lewrie away and order him to the Bahamas, into the teeth of ferocious winter storms. It’s enough to make a rakehell such as he weep and kick furniture!

At least his new orders allow Lewrie to form a small squadron from what ships he can dredge up at Bermuda and New Providence and hoist his first broad pendant, even if it is the lesser version, and style himself a Commodore.

Lewrie is to scour the shores of Cuba and Spanish Florida, the Keys and the Florida Straits in search of French and Spanish privateers which have been taking British merchantmen at an appalling rate, and call upon neutral American seaports to determine if privateers are getting aid and comfort from that quarter. Lewrie is to be “Diplomatic.” Diplomatic? Lewrie? Not bloody likely!

To solve the problem and find the answers will put Lewrie in touch with old friends, old foes, and more frustration than a dog has fleas. As usual, though, Captain Alan Lewrie will find his own unique way to fulfill his duties, and in the doing, find some fun in his own irrepressible manner!
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Book 19: Hostile Shores

“Lambdin is closing on Patrick O’Brian as the most prolific historical novelist to celebrate a Royal Navy mariner.” —Washington Times

In 1805, with news of Admiral Nelson’s death fresh on his mind, Captain Lewrie’s HMS Reliant joins up in the voyage that will culminate in the Battle of Cape Town, in which the British wrested control of South Africa from the Dutch. In the wake of that victory, Lewrie heads west to South America, where Britain’s attacks on Buenos Aires and other Spanish colonies have not been faring as well. But the worst is yet to come, and soon Lewrie will be facing a battle at sea that will put his naval career and life at risk.

Dewey Lambdin has been roundly praised as one of the best living novelists writing in the vein of Patrick O’Brian and C. S. Forester. In Hostile Shores he returns with an exciting, battle-heavy tale of life in the King’s Navy, starring the rough-edged hero Captain Alan Lewrie.
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Book 20: The King’s Marauder

The year 1807 starts out badly for Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy. His frigate HMS Reliant has a new captain, he’s living at his father’s estate at Anglesgreen, among spiteful neighbors and family, and he’s recovering from a wound suffered in the South Atlantic. At last, there’s a bright spot. When fit, Admiralty awards him a new commission; not a frigate but a clumsy, slow two-decker Fourth Rate 50. Are his frigate days over for good?

Lewrie’s ordered to Gibraltar, but Foreign Office Secret Branch’s spies and manipulators have use for him, again! HMS Sapphire is the wrong ship for the task, raising chaos and mayhem along the Spanish coasts, and servicing agents and informers. And, what he’s ordered to do needs soldiers, landing craft, and a transport ship, all of which he doesn’t have, and must find a way to finagle it all.

He could beg off and say that it’s asking too much, but . . . Alan Lewrie is not a man to admit failure and defeat, and his quest might prove the most daunting of his long naval career.

For fans of historical fiction, Dewey Lambdin’s Alan Lewrie series ranks alongside such greats as Patrick O’Brian and C.S. Forester for its terrific period detail and irresistible hero.
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Book 21: Kings And Emperors

“The best naval adventure series since C. S. Forester.” —Library Journal

Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy, is still in Gibraltar, his schemes for raids along the coast of Southern Spain shot to a halt. He is reduced to commanding a clutch of harbor defense gunboats in the bay while his ship, HMS Sapphire, slowly grounds herself on a reef of beef bones! Until Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of peaceful Portugal and his so-called collaborative march into Spain change everything, freeing Sapphire to roam against the King’s enemies once more!

As kings are overthrown and popular uprisings break out all across Spain, Lewrie’s right back in the action, ferrying weapons to arm Spanish patriots, scouting within close gun range of the impregnable fort of Ceuta, escorting the advance units of British expeditionary armies to aid the Spanish, and even going ashore to witness the first battles between Sir Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, and Napoleon’s best Marshals, as the long Peninsular War that broke Imperial France begins to unfold.
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Book 22: A Hard, Cruel Shore

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

The year 1809 starts out badly for Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy, and his ship, HMS Sapphire. They’ve extracted the sick, cold survivors of Sir John Moore’s army from disaster at Corunna, got hit by lightning while escorting the army to England, and suffered a shattered mainmast which may end Lewrie’s active commission if a replacement can’t be found or fashioned soon. Admiralty needs troopships, not slow, old Fourth Rate two-deckers, so Lewrie must beg, borrow, steal, and gild the facts most glibly if he wishes to keep her and her skilled crew together.

Just when he imagines he’s succeeded, new orders come appointing him a Commodore over a wee squadron assigned to prey upon French seaborne supply convoys off the treacherous north coast of Spain, better known as the Costa da Morte, the Coast of Death, where the sea may be more dangerous to him and his ships than the French Navy! Basing out of newly won Lisbon, where Lewrie hopes his mistress from Gibraltar, Maddalena Covilhá, might move, he’s sure of one thing: It’s going to be a rocky year that, hopefully, doesn’t involve wrecking on the rugged shores of Spain!