Customer Reviews

Troubled Waters: An Alan Lewrie Naval Adventure (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the early nineteenth century as England fights Napoleon, Royal Navy Captain Alan Lewrie learns that he has been sentenced to death in absentia by a Jamaican court allegedly for stealing slaves. Those who arranged the sham trial have come to England to execute him, claiming they carry out a legal sentencing that England by law must adhere to.

Meanwhile William Wilberforce and his abolitionist backers see Lewrie as an opportunity to focus on the inhumanity of slavery. They hire him a highly regarded barrister to defend him in court once his case appears on the docket. Freed because he is an aristocrat, Lewrie returns to his ship the H.M.S. Savage, blockading the seas off southwest France. Instead of sitting around, Lewrie sees a chance to cause havoc by leading a naval assault against the French coast.

The Lewrie historical naval novels (see A KING'S COMMANDER and A KING'S TRADE, etc.) are always some of the best Napoleonic War military tales around. TROUBLED WATERS is much more although the at sea battles are as great as ever. However, this time the audience also gets a chance to follow the English legal system that makes the DNA double helix look like a kindergarten puzzle. Dewey Lambkin keeps his excellent series fresh and exciting.

Harriet Klausner

I really enjoy this author's books. None of the Alan Lewrie books have been a disappointment. They are a clever, witty story that leave you excited for the next installment in the series.

If you're looking for a story with lots of cannon fire, smoke, guns and swords crossed then look no futher. Be sure to start at the beginning of the series with book #1 Kings Coat.

The entire Alan Lewrie series is immensely readable and enjoyable. It is, of course, not brilliant, high brow "naval adventure literature" like O'Brian but it doesn't try to be. It is simply rollicking action packed good fun. To be fully appreciated, this new installment (#14) should not be the first Lewrie book you should read. It is best enjoyed in the context of the full series (very highly recommended in its entirety).. I very, very seldom buy a book in hardcover -- but I did this one and will do so for #15 due, presumably, in 2010.

Having just finished book fourteen of this series, I want the author to know that he should keep writing. I've read the Hornblower series and the Aubrey-Maturin series. This Lewrie series is a little more bawdy, but very comparable to the Aubrey series and better than the Hornblower series. With each book the author is improving his stories. By "Troubled Water", the protogonist is now a post capitan with real life worries - marriage, work, legal. Although to modern sensibilities some of the predicaments seems bizarre, I suspect that they are historically accurate. So if you liked Aubrey, give this series a try. A few scenes are R rated, but the vast majority of the book is G.

The Alan Lewrie series doesn't come close to the 18th/19th century British naval adventure series by Patrick O'Brian but then he is the gold standard of this era in British naval history. And it doesn't speak to the realism of the Hornblower series but then that was based on fact. However, when Lambdin sticks to the naval side of things the books are quite enjoyable. His era socio-sexual scenes can both be quite lewd and disgusting while remaining boring to boot. The rest of it has been good enough though that I continue to look forward to each book as it becomes available.

Remarkably, this 14th Alan Lewrie novel begins with a new ship and a new 1st Lt. for Capt. Lewrie, eliciting pages of retellings of all the earlier tales of lucky, rakehell Lewrie. Strange. We don't get our cutwaters wet with a new adventure until halfway through this book; half way! But, I admit, the earlier legal wranglings come to a nice head by then--if ye have a mind fer ancient social mores and courthouse antics.

What new views of naval life do we get here? Capt. Lewrie is fitting out a new, better frigate, but we see more details of his ward, Sophie's, wedding. And more of the long-running, potentially lethal law case against him that fearfully drags on--with interesting details of how witnesses would be handled at trial. Remarkably, we finally get to read one of the infamous, anonymous, scurrilous letters that for years now have strained Lewrie's relations with his wife. Ah, whot troubl'd waters this mighty captain swims. Yet not so explicitly compromising as it would have been, I bet, if published in the days of Lewrie's rather graphic amours early in the series.

The title refers as much to the ongoing law suit against Capt. Alan Lewrie for theft and impressment of slaves, as to the French river mouth where his new ship patrols in 1800. The mission for small ships which Lewrie concocts on station is pointless--what do the British gain from their harrassment if they don't also plan to destroy the French ships abuilding? Lewrie should be charged with pointless murder, instead.

My title is also a recommendation to Dewey Lambdin.

One of the best nautical fiction series now available. The series should be rated R due to the "rowdy/randy" main character, but you cannot ignore the brilliance of the author in portraying life on a man-o-war in the age of sail. His historical accuracy is refreshing as is his character development. Most main characters in this genre' of novels are princes, nearly perfect; but not Alan Lewrey. His lack of self control when away from hearth and home land him in more trouble than the combined fleets of the U.S. Navy, France, Spain and Holland. With the warning to the character flaw of the main character, you can't help but wish the author could write FASTER! Hang in there Alan, it can't get any worse... or can it?

Tried in absentia in Jamaica for stealing slaves, a hanging offense, Captain Alan Lewrie's case finally gets to court in England... and then is adjourned while the judge considers what to do about it. So Lewrie is allowed back to the HMS Savage until the court convenes again, with the death sentence still hanging (so to speak) over him. Most of the crew from the old HMS Proteus has come along with Lewrie, although he gets a new First. And they are all headed to what may be some rather boring patrol work off the coast of France... until Lewrie gets some ideas of how to make things a bit more exciting, anyway.

This is the 14th book in the series. If you're starting new, it's probably best to begin at the beginning with KING'S COAT. If you've read the 13 previous and enjoyed them, you might as well continue. I love this series. Great characters, humor to make things fun even amidst blood and deprivation and themes of slavery and litigation and politics and such. The historical details seem solid to me and love of the life at sea and battles comes across strongly. I can't wait for the next book (which is always a good enough recommendation for a book, I think).

Alan Lewrie is certainly burdened with more than any average mortal could endure, but somehow he manages to not just survive, but to actually enjoy life--in spades, hawn hawn!!!

I've been reading the Alan Lewrie series for quite a while, and they always manage to please. This one throws in a bunch on English social color and commonlaw procedure as well as the usual Lewrie derring-do at sea, ashore, and at home. Read it!