The privateer's revenge - Julian Stockwin

Thomas Paine Kydd, in command of His Majesty's brig-sloop Teazer, has sunk to the depths of depression following the tragic loss of his fiance. Adding to his despair, the young sea officer offends Admiral Lockwood and is ordered to sail Teazer to the Channel Islands for guard duty. Stockwin deftly leads Kydd -- and readers -- through stormy emotional seas, culminating in the loss of his command when he is brutally betrayed off the Normandy coast. Kydd's naval career is seemingly at an end. "I will not have you as an example to my fleet" says Admiral Sir James Saumarez. Defamed by treachery and set ashore, Kydd's only solace is the friendship of Nicholas Renzi. Together they begin to eke out a dismal existence on Guernsey. Desperation leads Renzi to become involved in covert operations, while Kydd accepts the captaincy of the privateer Bien Heureuse, launching a new venture. Even as Kydd takes the privateer to sea, he has hopes of clearing his name and restoring his career in the navy he loves. After an unsuccessful voyage, investors pull their financial support and Kydd is beached once again -- until a shady character from his recent past appears with a fat purse and a proposition. Once again, Kydd finds himself engaged in privateering, this time in command of the wicked Witch of Sarnia, a low and rakish blackhulled vessel, built especially for the trade and fitted out to his specifications. Stockwin paints vivid word pictures of early nineteenth-century life ashore and at sea in the Channel Islands, based on time spent there in preparation for this latest chapter in the Kydd saga. This is his forte. He "lives" in the time about which he writes, breathing life into his characters, revealing their world layer by layer. In "The Privateer's Revenge", Thomas Kydd suffers the loss of his beloved and struggles to right himself, while dealing with a betrayal which seems to be out of his control or understanding. Kydd's mettle and ability to cope appeals as the author continues to develop his character. "The Privateer's Revenge" reveals the terror of Napoleonic France, which threatened England from just across the English Channel in the early nineteenth century. Stockwin steeps his tale in surging seas, powder smoke, and the smell of canvas and tarred rigging.