The sequel to the successful First Fleet in which Lieutenant Jack Vizzard of HM Corps of Marines is tasked with escorting from France a valued government agent carrying intelligence of vital importance to the government of William Pitt.
Vizzard is betrayed and captured by a traitor and must escape from France. He is befriended by a beautiful Frenchwoman who can help him. But can he trust her?
Safely back in Britain Vizzard is charged by the Prime Minister with further espionage work and must return to France. His work there leads to the first fleet battle of the Revolutionary War, known in Britain as the Glorious First of June. As commander of a detachmant of marines on HMS Brunswick he now has what he has long sought - action in the fiercest individual contest between two ships in the bloodiest battle at sea during the Revolutionary War with France.
I very much enjoyed this well-written adventure, the second featuring Morgan's protagonist Lieutenant Jack Vizzard. Some time after returning from Australia, Vizzard finds himself tasked with locating a British spy in France and returning him to British soil. It is 1793 and Britain and France are now at war: the stakes are particularly high, as the spy in question has information the British government will stop at nothing to acquire.
Through a complex series of events, tensely narrated and well-plotted, Vizzard finds himself present at the first battle during the wars with revolutionary France: the "Glorious First of June". It is at this stage of the novel that Morgan's prose truly comes into its own, and some phrases (the one comparing the ships of Lord Howe's navy to "canvas cathedrals" in particular) are truly beautiful. Morgan pulls no punches in his depiction of the bloodiness of close-quarters battle, and I devoured this second half of the book in pretty much one sitting.
I very much recommend this book, and will be looking out for the third in the series.