Hoare & the Matter of Treason: A Commander Bartholomew Hoare de Perkins, Wilder - 2001

New York, NY, U.S.A.: Saint Martin's Press, LLC, 2001. 1st edition, April 2001, with complete number line beginning with 1. Fine in fine dust jacket, not price clipped, in protective mylar cover. 1805 England. "Sadly, this is last (and third) installment in a cleverly conceived, brilliantly executed series featuring Commander Bartholomew Hoare of His Majesty George III's Royal Navy. With his hoarse-voiced whisper (legacy of a musket ball), Hoare is an unusual naval officer, while his command, the Royal Duke, is equally unusual and unorthodox. The brig serves as a floating spy center with a crew of men and women whose least skills are seamanship. In fact, the Royal Duke's standing orders preclude it from setting to sea at all until extraordinary circumstances contravene them. Called to London, Hoare receives orders from Admiral Sir Hugh Abercrombie to locate and retrieve sensitive documents lost or stolen from the Admiralty. Hoare later finds himself confronting an old enemy as well as an unnamed nemesis whom he's thwarted in the past. Deadly treason threatens the government and Hoare personally when his new wife and his ward are kidnapped and he must gamble for their lives. The appearance of historical (Jane Austen) and legendary (Horatio Hornblower) characters enhances the pleasure...Perkins completed shortly before his death in 1999, is a solidly entertaining blend of period adventure and mystery....if alerted to the high quality of this book and its predecessors, Patrick O'Brian fans should sail into them with relish, undaunted by the end of the series." --- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY . 1st Edition. Hard Cover. Fine/Fine. Book.