All of O'Brian's strengths are on parade in this novel of action and intrigue, set partly in the treacherous, pirate-infested waters of the Red Sea. While Captain Aubrey worries about repairs to his ship, Stephen Maturin assumes the center stage, for his cunning is the sole bulwark against Napoleon's agents, who plot sabotage.

All Patrick O'Brian's strengths are on parade in this novel of action and intrigue, set partly in Malta, partly in the treacherous, pirate-infested waters of the Red Sea. While Captain Aubrey worries about repairs to his ship, Stephen Maturin assumes the center stage for the dockyards and salons of Malta are alive with Napoleon's agents, and the admiralty's intelligence network is compromised. Maturin's cunning is the sole bulwark against sabotage of Aubrey's daring mission.

Review
[O Brian s] Aubrey-Maturin series, 20 novels of the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars, is a masterpiece. It will outlive most of today s putative literary gems as Sherlock Holmes has outlived Bulwer-Lytton, as Mark Twain has outlived Charles Reade. —David Mamet

Patrick O'Brian's acclaimed Aubrey/Maturin series of historical novels has been described as “a masterpiece” (David Mamet, New York Times), “addictively readable” (Patrick T. Reardon, Chicago Tribune), and “the best historical novels ever written” (Richard Snow, New York Times Book Review), which “should have been on those lists of the greatest novels of the 20th century” (George Will).Set in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, O'Brian's twenty-volume series centers on the enduring friendship between naval officer Jack Aubrey and physician (and spy) Stephen Maturin. The Far Side of the