Conquest: A Kydd Sea Adventure

Stockwin’s 12th book in his Napoleonic naval warfare series is a great improvement over Victory, his previous entry. Stockwin assembles an exciting and suspenseful historical loaded with action, intrigue, treachery, and the bloody gore of 1805 warfare. Capt. Thomas Kydd returns to sea after the cataclysmic Battle of Trafalgar in command of L’Aurore for a joint army-navy expedition to capture Cape Town, South Africa, from the Dutch and expand the British Empire. But in a puzzling move, the Dutch surrender, leaving the British with a restive and reluctant overseas colony while hidden enemy forces prepare to attack. As the threat grows, Kydd tumbles into bed with a beautiful and dangerous French expatriate royalist. When Kydd’s sidekick, Nicholas Renzi, stumbles into a deadly plot, Kydd risks his ship, career, and life committing an offense for which he may well hang. Even his own crew disapproves of his actions and questions his motives. Stockwin, a retired lieutenant commander of the British navy, fills this tale with the colorful history of British imperialism, as well as vivid and lush descriptions of colonial South Africa, professional seamanship, bold leadership, and the friendship of two men who share the perils of life at sea in the Royal Navy. (Oct.)