The Baltic Gambit - Paperback

by Dewey Lambdin (Author)

January 1801, and Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy, known as ""St. Alan the Liberator"" for freeing (stealing!) a dozen black slaves on Jamaica to man his frigate years before, is at last being brought to trial for it, with his life on the line. At the same time, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia are forming a League of Armed Neutrality, to Napoleon Bonaparte's delight, to deny Great Britain their vital exports, even if it means war. England will need all her experienced sea dogs, but ... even Alan Lewrie?

Ultimately Lewrie is acquitted, but he's also ignored by the Navy, so it's half-pay on ""civvy street"" for him, and with idle time on his mischievous hands, Lewrie is sure to get himself in trouble---again!---especially if there are young women and his wastrel public school friends involved...and they are! A brawl in a Panton Saint brothel, a drunk, infatuated young Russian count, precede Lewrie's summons to Admiralty and the command of the Thermopylae frigate to replace an ill captain as the fleet gathers to face down the League of the North, and its instigator, the mad Tsar Paul.

Lewrie must take the Thermopylae into the Baltic in the dead of winter, alone and with no support, to scout the enemy fleets and iced-in harbors, deal with a fellow officer who is less of a friend than he thought, and be saddled with a pair of Russian noblemen as a last-minute peace delegation, but if the wily Foreign Office spy-master, Zachariah Twigg, sent them, what else might their mission be?

All that and the Battle of Copenhagen, too, and it's broadsides at close quarters, and treachery for Lewrie, forcing him to use all his wiles to survive! The Baltic Gambit is one of Dewey Lambdin's most enjoyable naval adventures yet.

Front Jacket

Praise for author Dewey Lambdin:

"You could get addicted to this series. Easily." --The New York Times Book Review

"His mastery of period naval warfare gives his battles real punch." --Publishers Weekly

"Stunning naval adventure, reeking of powder and mayhem. I wish I had written this series." --Bernard Cornwell

"The brilliantly stylish American master of salty-tongued British naval tales." --Kirkus Reviews

"The best naval adventure series since C. S. Forester." --Library Journal

"Lewrie is a marvelous creation, resourceful and bold." --James L. Nelson, author of the Revolution at Sea Saga

"A rousing series of nautical adventures." --Booklist

Back Jacket

Praise for author Dewey Lambdin:

"You could get addicted to this series. Easily." --The New York Times Book Review

"His mastery of period naval warfare gives his battles real punch." --Publishers Weekly

"Stunning naval adventure, reeking of powder and mayhem. I wish I had written this series." --Bernard Cornwell

"The brilliantly stylish American master of salty-tongued British naval tales." --Kirkus Reviews

"The best naval adventure series since C. S. Forester." --Library Journal

"Lewrie is a marvelous creation, resourceful and bold." --James L. Nelson, author of the Revolution at Sea Saga

"A rousing series of nautical adventures." --Booklist

Author Biography

Dewey Lambdin is the author of fourteen previous Alan Lewrie novels. A member of the U.S. Naval Institute and a Friend of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, he spends his free time working and sailing (he's been a sailor since 1976). He makes his home in Nashville, Tennessee, but would much prefer Margaritaville or Murrell's Inlet.