Author: O'Brian, Patrick
Publisher: Flamingo
Format: PB 302 pp
Another salty thriller from the incomparable Patrick O'Brian. When the book opens Jack Aubrey is a post-captain of experience and capapcity but he has been struck off the Navy List for a crime he did not commit. His friend Stephen Maturin - a ship's surgeon and unofficial British intelligence agent, buys Aurbrey his old ship , the Surprise , and together they set off as privateers. If they succeed, Aubrey might regain his rank in the Royal Navy....... It sounds a simple plot, but like all Patrick O'Brian books it is rich and dense, and utterly steeped in the early 18th Century. PB. 302pp.