The Pirate Round (Brethren of the Coast) [Kindle Edition]

James L. Nelson (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former pirate Thomas Marlowe returns to his old trade in this third and final novel in Nelson's Brethren of the Coast series (The Guardship; The Blackbirder). It is the year 1706, and Marlowe has been a (fairly) respectable Virginia tobacco plantation owner since 1700. But now war in europe is choking the tobacco business, and Marlowe is nearly broke. It is his beautiful wife, elizabeth, who comes up with a solution: to save his land and dubious reputation, Marlowe will resort to his old profession. He recruits a motley crew, including his wife, sails to London to sell some tobacco, and then intends to proceed to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean to prey on the treasure ships of the Great Mogul, ruler of India. Marlowe is recognized in London, however, by a psychotic enemy who pursues him to the pirate stronghold of Madagascar. Marlowe finds no sanctuary there; instead, he encounters Lord elephiant Yancy, a treacherous pirate leader who fancies Marlowe's wife and has murderous plans for Marlowe and his pursuers alike. Marlowe, however, is a man of proven courage, loyalty, ruthlessness and trickery, so he has some bloody surprises for Yancy and the cutthroats who would threaten his wife and crew. This is a rousing swashbuckler filled with treasure, sea battles, feuds, revenge, romance and deadly conspiracies. Nelson's Marlowe is an antihero, a man of action and honor who is also larcenous and forever scheming - a good man, but not too good. Nelson's portrayal of the pirate menace and its unique seagoing society is thorough, accurate, colorful and utterly convincing, providing a full broadside of reading entertainment.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Pirate-turned-privateer Thomas Marlowe returns in the final installment of Nelson's riveting Brethren of the Coast trilogy. In 1706, Marlowe, chafing a bit under the yoke of respectability accorded him as one of the most prominent plantation owners in the colony of Virginia, longs to recapture the excitement of his days on the open sea. When the shipping rates increase exorbitantly due to the lingering war in Europe, Thomas seizes the opportunity to set sail in order to sell his own tobacco crop personally in London. Fate intervenes as Marlowe is confronted by Captain Roger Press, a bitter enemy from his checkered past. Chased by Press to the island of Madagascar, he engages his old nemesis in a treacherous game of cat-and-mouse as each vies for both revenge and the fabulous treasure carried by ships belonging to the mogul of India. Though Thomas prevails, his triumph is tempered by grief as he achieves his goal only at great personal cost. This suspenseful, action-packed adventure is a worthy conclusion to an authentically detailed maritime series. Margaret Flanagan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 415 KB
• Publisher: HarperCollins e-books (October 13, 2009)
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
• Language: English
• ASIN: B000OI0EU4
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #249,696 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

More About the Author

I was born in a log cabin in the sea-side town of Lewiston, Maine.... Okay, maybe not a log cabin. And maybe Lewiston isn't exactly a seaside town. Despite that, my interest in ships and the sea began early, reading Hornblower and building ship models. In high school I built a fifteen foot sailboat, and with a friend, an eighteen foot canoe.
I graduated from Lewiston High School in 1980, if not with honors then at least with a diploma. After a year of hitchhiking and motorcycling around the country, I attended the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, later transferring to UCLA Film School (Official Motto: '...but what I really want to do is direct...') , from which I graduated in 1986. After working in the television industry for two years, I realized that I could not stand a) the television industry, b) Los Angeles and c) being ashore. In 1988 I joined the crew of the Golden Hinde (rhymes with mind), a replica of Sir Francis Drake's vessel of 1577. There I met a foretop person named Lisa Page, whom I beat out for the job of bosun. Lisa vowed then and there to marry me and make me pay for that for the rest of my life.
Leaving the Hinde in Houston, Texas, I worked aboard the brig Lady Washington (after my time she played the Interceptor in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie) and the ship 'HMS' Rose, (Surprise in Master and Commander, also after my time) I sailed aboard Rose for two years, as Able Bodied Seaman and Third Mate.
In 1993, I 'swallowed the anchor.' Lisa Page, made good on her threat and we married that year. The following year I finished By Force of Arms, my first book. I've been a full-time writer since then, with fourteen books either published or in the process of being published. My books have sold in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain. My 2003 title Glory in the Name was selected as the winner of the American Library Association's W.Y. Boyd Award for Excellence in Military Fiction.
Recently, my writing has expanded to include non-fiction. My first work of non-fiction was Reign of Iron, a detailed look at the ironclads Monitor and Merrimack (Virginia, Benedict Arnold's Navy about the Revolutionary war naval battle that took place on Lake Champlain. My book George Washington's Secret Navy won the Naval Order's Samuel Eliot Morison award in 2010.
Lisa and I now live in Harpswell, Maine (which really is a seaside town), with our four children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of a Great Series!, August 16, 2002

By 

William Barnes (Denver) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Pirate Round: Book Three of the Brethren of the Coast (Hardcover)

I have read all of the Brethren of the Coast books (and most of Nelson's Biddlecomb books) and enjoyed then all a great deal, but this one is the best so far. Nelson is terrific at creating dangerous madmen, and the characters in Pirate Round are beleivable and terrifying. This is real edge of the seat writing, with the usual atention to historical detail and the kind of sea writing that can onlycome from a former blue water sailor. A great book, you will love it!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good swashbuckling adventure, January 22, 2003

By 

Robert F. Jakubowicz (Pittsfield, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pirate Round: Book Three of the Brethren of the Coast (Hardcover)

This book concludes the author's trilogy about his pirate or as he puts it his Brethren of the Coast series. It is a good sea adventure story. This was a good time for the author to end, or at least it seems he is ending, the adventures of Thomas Marlow the protagonist in this series of books. Unlike fictional sea adventure heroes Hornblower and Bolitho whose series of books were continued on the basis of their promotions in the ranks of British officers to face new challenges, Marlow the former pirate had no such future. His story was due to end soon.
This book has Marlow, facing a bad market for tobacco from his plantation taking a chance to make some money for himself and his neighbors with a cargo of tobacco to beat other shipments to England. But he loses that cargo because of an old pirate enemy and decides to try his luck as a privateer in the Indian ocean preying on richly laden cargo ships. Again his bad luck holds when he runs into another one of his old pirate enemies who rules an island in that area. And the book concludes with a fight to the finish between Marlow and his two enemies. It is a close thing for Marlow and he loses his trusted friend and advisor in the battle. But Marlow and his wife survive and now is a good time for the author to allow them to live every happily after.
I now look forward to a new sea going adventurer by the author in a new series.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Was Saved for Last!!!, November 1, 2004

By 

John R. Linnell (New Gloucester, ME United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Pirate Round: Book Three of the Brethren of the Coast (Paperback)

We have now advanced to 1706 in the final book of the trilogy, Bretheren of the Coast involving Thomas Marlowe. Marlowe having left his former life as a pirate, changed his name and found respectability as a tobacco plantation owner is about to be visited by his past again. War in Europe has made shipping tobacco there far less profitable than in the past and due to piracy the tobacco owners liked to send their crops in one large convoy which resulted in a glut on the market when it landed and
raised havoc with their profits. It is Elizabeth who comes up with the idea of refitting their former private man-of war and shipping their tobacco ahead of the convoy, thereby fetching a fair price to and helping them avoid financil ruin. Marlowe, who has been too long without having a quarterdeck under his feet, jumps at the idea and also has another thought in the back of his mind, as he is aware of the stories coming back across the water of new opportunities for those who are willing to sail to the Indian Ocean to prey upon the treasure ships of the great Mogul of India.

Once again, Marlowe's past returns to haunt him when they get their crop to England and Marlowe is required to come ashore in London to sign for the crops of neighbors which he had carried and is confronted by Roger Press, a former pirate whom Marlowe had thought was dead. Marlowe had marooned him and left him to die in the Caribeean several years before. Press has been hired by the East India Company, been given a man-of-war and a Queen's Commission to hunt pirates and stop the plundering of the company's shipping. Upon discovering Marlowe, Press attempts to abduct him and plans to kill him. Marlowe escapes with his ship and his life, but without funds from the cargo of tobacco they cannot return home and a decision is arrived at to head for the Indian Ocean and the riches that can be found there in the "sweet life."

From that point on the story gets into the life of The Pirate Round in full measure. The intrigues, villians, battles and the like keep building to an epic finish and from it all, Thomas Marlowe finds an answer to one of life's questions that we all can learn from.

James Nelson has told a wonderful, entertaining and often bittersweet tale of the times and life among The Bretheren of the Coast, and this last book is the best of the three.