Cindy Vallar's Blog - Posts Tagged "guillotine"

Sailor of Liberty by J.D. Davies

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


The voyage is to be sedate, a quiet sail into Saint-Malo and Philippe Kermorvant will step ashore with little fanfare. Fate decrees otherwise. The enemy emerges from the fog and unleashes a devastating volley that kills the captain. His matelots persuade Philippe to rescue them from the onslaught. He agrees and uses his experience commanding American and Russian ships to trick the enemy long enough to get away.

It is Year Two of the French Republic, although his many friends know the time as 1793. Some think his dream folly, but it is a pursuit he cannot give up. It gives his life purpose, something he lost when grief consumed him. Surely, the Republicans will grant his request, especially with the many letters of recommendation that he carries. Especially since his father was Verité, a hero, a legend, a forward-thinking Frenchman who espoused freedom long before the citizenry rose up against the monarchy. But nothing is guaranteed, particularly when the Committee of Public Safety dares even to behead Citizen Louis Capet, the former king of France. The same fate may become Philippe’s, a fact he understands since he is the Vicomte de Saint-Victor.

That possibility becomes all too real when someone close to Philippe denounces him as a traitor to the Republic and a mob comes to arrest him. Although given a chance to escape his prison, he prefers to meet Madame Guillotine. This decision, combined with his betrayer being denounced with irrefutable evidence, leads to Philippe’s freedom and the granting of his dream. He will captain Le Zéphyr, a 32-gun frigate manned by several hundred men. An easy task for someone with his experience, n’est-ce pas?

Perhaps not. His second-in-command denounced his predecessor to the Committee and expects to be given command himself. The crew is a mix of able seamen and landsmen, but each believes he has the right to question any order the captain gives. The representative of the Committee neither likes nor trusts Philippe. He must patrol regions of France where loyalists eagerly await a British invasion in support of their cause. Mutiny ripples through French warships, while English warships blockade the coast. It is only a matter of time before one, or more, of these enemies attempt to thwart Philippe.

Philippe may look through rose-colored glasses, but he does understand what’s happening in France. He is a flawed hero in this regard, but this makes him real and results in the truths he witnesses being all the more horrific. Many stories that depict the French Revolution and Napoleonic Era unfold from a British perspective, which makes this new series fresh and unique because readers experience events from the French point of view. The villains are dastardly and deserve our loathing, but Davies portrays them as products of their time and illustrates how tenuous a path Philippe must weave to navigate such treacherous waters. As always, Davies’s knowledge of history and the maritime world are seamlessly woven into the story, and he vividly and realistically portrays the brutality of war and revolution. This first entry in The Philippe Kermorvant Thrillers is a bewitching tale in and of itself, but the unexpected twist at the end promises many more provocative tales to come.




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(This review originally appeared at Pirates and Privateers: http://www.cindyvallar.com/JDDavies.h...)