The 16th volume in the popular high-seas nautical adventure series featuring naval hero Thomas Kydd. The greatest naval trial in the Georgian period is underway at Portsmouth with the court-martial of Sir Home Popham, Captain Sir Thomas Kydd’s commanding officer in the doomed occupation of Buenos Aires. Kydd has sympathy for Popham’s unauthorized action but his support for his former commander leaves him athwart some very influential people in the Admiralty. With his frigate L'Aurore unfit for sea, Kydd is given a new commission that his rivals hope will destroy his career. The Tyger's have recently mutinied, but instead of dispersing her company around the fleet as is customary, the ship is pressed into immediate service in the North Sea and Kydd faces a crew still under some malign influence. Enemies aboard and on the high seas are just the start of the problem. Soon he will have to take his untested and untrustworthy crew into the Baltic, where they will find themselves entangled with Napoleon’s invasion of Prussia. The stakes are desperate, the task seemingly impossible, and the French implacable. The only way for Kydd to avoid disgrace is to gamble his reputation and crew on a crazy mission to snatch a Prussian division out of the jaws of Napoleon’s advancing army. Will he return home once more a hero or face a court-martial himself? A rousingly exciting and delicious full-immersion in the perils of seafaring and society during the great Age of Sail! -- Dewey Lambdin, author of the Alan Lewrie series Period dialect and seagoing argot aplenty add credibility to the adventure, and the unworldly Kydd is an apt lens for the reader's journey. ― Publishers Weekly Comparable to C.C. Humphreys’s Jack Absolute series and the naval tales of the great Patrick O’Brian. ― Library Journal Well-written mixture of high-seas adventure and character-based drama . . . impossible not to enjoy. ― Booklist The vantage point of the common sailor gives the nautical novel a fresh twist. In Stockwin’s hands the sea story will continue to entrance readers across the world. ― The Guardian Stockwin's writing is enriched by his own experiences in the Royal Navy, which gives scenes of fighting and tempest an authenticity to delight anyone who shares his passion for the sea. ― Daily Telegraph Elegantly plotted . . . the writing has the power of a broadside at close range. ― Oxford Times Stockwin's descriptions of the bloody reality of naval combat 200 years ago are memorably vivid, and reveal a profound respect for the seamen who were willing to sacrifice their lives to help save their country. ― Yorkshire Evening Post Written with authoritative detail by a gifted storyteller who is passionate about the Great Age of Sail. ― Western Morning News Likable Tom and his shipmates make a snug fit in that page-turning Forester and O'Brian tradition—thanks to retired Royal Navy author Stockwin. ― Kirkus Reviews Stockwin continues to display his talents in transporting his audience from the 21st century to the chaotic worlds of Kydd, Renzi, and their imperiled homeland. . . . [He] goes into action with swords drawn and cannons and carronades blasting. -- Historical Novels Review Online At the age of fourteen, Julian Stockwin went to TS Indefatigable, a tough sea-training school. He joined the British Royal Navy at fifteen before transferring to the Royal Australian Navy, where he served for eight years in the Far East, the Antarctic, and the South Seas. Retired as a lieutenant commander, he lives in Devon, England, with his wife and literary partner, Kathy.