Jester's Fortune, Vol. 8

FROM THE PUBLISHER

All the technical details and swashbuckling action scenes readers have come to expect from Dewey Lambdin are present in this eighth installment in the Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures series. Fresh from his successes along the French coast, Commander Alan Lewrie is dispatched to the Adriatic to patrol the shores of Italy and intercept any French ships trying to reinforce Napoleon's armies. The four ship squadron the HMS Jester has joined emerge victorious from the first few skirmishes, but it soon becomes evident, even to Lewrie, that the British forces need reinforcements. The aid they receive, however, might be the most terrifying aspect of the war yet...and a lethal mistake. Expertly weaving late eighteenth and early nineteenth century naval and military history into a believable and engaging plot, Jester's Fortune will transport readers to the exciting period of history when Brittania ruled the waves.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

The eighth title in the Alan Lewrie adventure series (after The King's Coat) finds our hero in 1796 the commander of the sloop HMS Jester, one of four Royal Navy ships patrolling the Adriatic. Napoleon has been marauding in Northern Italy and the squadron's duty is to maintain the Alliance's shaky ties with Venice. Feeling shorthanded, the flotilla's leader decides to enlist, sub rosa, some Balkan pirates on the English side. Lewrie is justifiably hesitant about this ploy and, as events ensue, he's proven right when the Serbian pirates engage in an orgy of gut-churning brutality. The face of ethnic cleansing has rarely looked so ghastly. Lambdin offers views of new places here (Corfu, the "fabulist sham" of Venice); exotic history (someone calls the feral feuds of the Serbs, Croats, Greeks, Turks, Albanians, Catholics, Orthodox, Muslims "rather complicated"--British understatement raised to a new level); and inner workings of a craft (sailors' life, aboard and ashore). There are successful sea actions (and prize money), a bloody denouement with the Serbian pirates and, for the "bit unconventional" Lewrie, who is somewhat of a scamp, a new romantic entanglement. Readers of the series will not be disappointed in the ending, although Lambdin should lose his annoying tendency to mimic phonetic speech, which seriously slows the plot (e.g., an Austrian officer/translator remarks, "He asks me, are we de British Royal Navy vich hezz so vahry much silver to buy brat unt sheep"). But fans will find plenty to like in this colorful adventure. (Mar.)

Kirkus Reviews

Prepare to come about! Alan Lewrie, captain H.M.S. Jester, is bound for the Adriatic in Lambdin's (A King's Commander, 1996; etc.) eighth installment of his hero's adventures at sea. This time, we find Lewrie still hot on Bonaparte's trail as the little Corsican embarks on his Italian campaign. Despite his defeat at the Battle of Trafalgar, Napoleon still, in 1805, controls nearly the whole of Europe and is resolved to destroy the British through economic warfare. With the greatest army since the Caesars' at his command, the Emperor is invincible on the Continent-but the British rule the waves. That's where Lewrie comes in. The Alps make overland supply routes impossible, so the Jester and three ships under her command are sent to blockade the Italian coast. Lewrie quickly realizes that the job is beyond them on their own. But where can they turn for help, in enemy waters thousands of miles from home? Well, who do sailors always turn to when the odds are against them? No, not God (this is the 19th century, after all) but pirates-in this case, a flotilla of Serbian outlaws. All the Lambdin hallmarks-adventure, politics, betrayal, and courage-are here, and it doesn't give the game away to say that Lewrie manages to carry the day as usual, but not without leaving enough fight in the French to generate another book or two. .