David Donachie

1794. In the wake of the Glorious 1st of June, an equivocal success for the British naval fleet against Revolutionary France, John Pearce has pressing matters to which he must attend. He has an urgent commission from Lord Hood, he must track down Midshipman Toby Burns and placate Emily who, estranged from her husband, Pearce's enemy Captain Ralph Barclay, is now under his protection. Meanwhile, Pearce finds himself aboard HMS Agamemnon, and in series of actions and shore raids, impresses Horatio Nelson with his bold and brave manoeuvres.

Lieutenant John Pearce is in dangerous waters. He lacks funds, has lost the evidence of perjury he once held against his enemy Captain Ralph Barclay, and is being dogged by Barclay's clerk Gherson, who is as keen as his employer to silence anyone who may cause unwanted revelations. But then a smiling stranger offers Pearce an opportunity he cannot refuse. Reunited with his old friends the Pelicans, he must fetch a ship laden with contraband back from France; an illegal, but very profitable, act. Yet is all as it seems? Are Pearce and his Pelicans sailing into prosperity - or danger?

London: 1793. Young firebrand John Pearce, on the run from the authorities, is illegally press-ganged from the Pelican tavern into brutal life aboard HMS Brilliant, a frigate on its way to war. In the first few days Pearce discovers the Navy is a world in which he can prosper. But he is not alone; he is drawn to a group of men who eventually form an exclusive gun crew, the Pelicans, with Pearce their elected leader. Shipboard life is hard, brutal and dangerous. That anyone chooses it suggest that life ashore is worse. The Pelicans find solidarity in facing together the cruelty of their hard-nosed captain, Barclay, and the daily threat of bullying, flogging - even murder. The one light on the horizon is the captain's young, curvaceous wife, Emily. During an action-packed two weeks, as HMS Brilliant chases a French privateer across the English Channel, this disparate group of men form friendships that will last a lifetime.

Having evacuated the King and Queen of Naples ahead of Napoleon's advancing army, Nelson must now await developments in Sicily. In the meantime, he and Emma savor their passionate affair, and when Nelson travels back to Britain with the Hamiltons, he finds he is the toast of Europe. Finally he is given the chance he's been waiting for: off a little-known Spanish cape, called Trafalgar, he will show the world what he is made of!

It's 1784 and Nelson is sent to the Caribbean to enforce the hated Navigation Acts. While there, he marries Fanny Nisbet. Ordered next to the Mediterranean, he engages in a string of spectacular naval battles: Cape St Vincent, Tenerife, and the Nile. The ravages of war take their physical toll on Nelson, even as he gains the fame and honor he desperately craves.

A chronicle of the fascinating early years of Horatio Nelson and Emma Lyon. Both determined to rise from obscurity, they set about making their ways through the world with corresponding recklessness and precocious ambition. Nelson enters the Royal Navy at the age of twelve and is made post captain at the age of twenty. Emma, luscious but penniless, cannily confronts her limited prospects to rise through the social ranks from teenaged bawd to noblemen's courtesan to celebrated artist's model. Rich in historical detail, this novel offers authentic sea action and a rare peek into London's demimonde, where the lives of a beautiful courtesan and Britain's greatest naval hero collide.

1795 ... The wars of revolution are spreading across the globe and Harry Ludlow has joined the struggle for the richest trade in the world. When half his crew is illegally pressed into the Royal Navy by the vicious Captain Toner, Harry sets off in pursuit of Toner's ship, the Endymion-only to end up half a world away. When Toner reaches the West Indies with Harry close behind, they sail into a maelstrom of piracy, corruption, and murder stirred up by a French privateer playing havoc with the local trade. Soon, the British officer in charge of the station, Admiral Bessborough, calls upon each man to help in his individual way. All the while, Harry's kidnapped crew members fight for survival on a ship driven to the point of mutiny. An avowed lover of naval fiction with a streak of mischief, David Donachie has sailed into a breach in the nautical genre by blending seagoing adventure with the mystery and twists of a whodunit. A Scot by birth, he lives on the Channel coast of England, where he works to keep his inspirations in motion (`I have about three ideas a day by the way, all my ideas are great`) and has lately published a biographical novel about Admiral Lord Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton. He now lives in Deal with his partner, Sarah and two children, Thomas and Charlotte.

Returning to England, Harry and James become embroiled in a vicious struggle between rival smugglers played out in the English Channel. Witnesses to a bloody confrontation, they flee to Deal--only to find that, behind its picturesque facade, the town is a haven for traders in contraband, seething with corruption and violence.

Harry Ludlow, forced out of the Royal Navy, becomes a privateer in partnership with his younger brother James. But for the Ludlows, murder and intrigue take more of their time than hunting fat trading vessels. Harry and James find themselves aboard the Navy's 74-gun Magnanime. In command is a captain with whom Harry has crossed swords in the past. When James is found standing over the body of a dead officer, Harry's feud shifts into the background.