After yellow fever decimated the crew of Alan Lewrie's HMS Proteus, it had seemed like a good idea to abscond with a dozen slaves from a Jamaican plantation to help man the frigate. But two years later, Lewrie is suspected of the deed. Slave stealing is a hanging offence, and suddenly his neck is at risk of a fatal stretching. Once Lewrie has escaped to England, the master foreign office spy, Zachariah Twigg, arranges for a long voyage even further out of the law's reach, to Cape Town and India as escort to an East India Company convoy.
At the Cape of Good Hope a British circus and theatre troupe also joins the party. With the arrival of the seductive but deadly archer, Eudoxia DurschenkoIt, it will take all Lewrie's shrewd guilt, wile and steely self-control to keep his breeches chastely buttoned to avoid even more trouble...
A King's Trade, book thirteen in The Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures, is perfect for fans of David McDine, Bernard Cornwell and Patrick O'Brian.
'You could get addicted to this series. Easily.' New York Times Book Review
'The best naval series since C. S. Forester . . . Recommended.' Library Journal
'Fast-moving. . . A hugely likeable hero, a huge cast of sharply drawn supporting characters: there's nothing missing. Wonderful stuff.' Kirkus Reviews
