Patrick O' Brian's Aubrey-Maturin tales are widely acknowledged to be the greatest series of historical novels ever written To commemorate the 40th anniversary of their beginning with Master & Commander these evocative stories are being re-issued in paperback with smart new livery This is the seventh book in the series Jack Aubrey & Stephen Maturin are ordered home by despatch vessel to bring the news of their latest victory to the government But Maturin is a marked man for the havoc he has wrought in the French intelligence network in the New World & the attentions of two privateers soon become menacing The chase that follows through the fogs & shallows of the Grand Banks is as thrilling as tense & as unexpected in its culmination as anything Patrick O' Brian has written Then among other things follows a shipwreck & a particularly sinister internment in the notorious Temple Prison in Paris Once again the tigerish & fascinating Diana Villiers redresses the balance in this man's world of seamanship & war