Cindy Vallar's Blog - Posts Tagged "nicholas-fallon"

Barbarians on an Ancient Sea by William Westbrook

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


On the shoals of Bermuda, a ship founders in a storm in 1800. All hands are lost. Among the scattered wreckage is a chest of gold coins. Later, nine-year-old Little Eddy roves the beach in search of his long-lost father and whatever treasure the sea deigns to wash ashore. This day of foraging delivers a single wooden plank with the letter “J” on it. He hurries back to tell Ezra Somers, whose ships carry salt throughout the Caribbean and the eastern seaboard of the United States.

Caught in the same storm, Nicholas Fallon cruises the ocean north of Hispaniola in hopes of encountering French privateers or pirates that have been harassing the ships of the Somers Salt Company. As captain of the Rascal, he carries a letter of marque and since the British are at war against France and Spain, he and his crew are eager to snare a few more prizes. Instead, they spy a signal rocket and investigate. As a New England sloop teeters on the brink of sinking, they embark on a daring rescue to save those aboard.

The loss of the sloop weighs heavy on Caleb Visser, but he prays that his brother’s ship has weathered the storm. His hopes are dashed once Rascal docks in Bermuda and Nicholas takes him to meet his future father-in-law and partner, Ezra Somers. Little Eddy shares what he found and Caleb knows that he’s lost not only his brother, but also any chance they had of rescuing their father. The gold his brother carried was the ransom demanded by the dey of Algiers, whose corsairs had captured and enslaved Wilhelm Visser.

When Little Eddy reveals the location of the wreck, a sliver of hope surfaces. If a diver can locate the gold, there’s a chance Caleb can recover what has been lost. Then all he will need is to find a merchant ship willing to venture into the dangerous waters of the Mediterranean, the hunting grounds of the Barbary pirates. Nicholas wants to help Caleb, but his wedding day approaches and he must convoy two salt ships to Boston – a journey fraught with peril from the pirates in the Caribbean and a French frigate prowling the waters near the Chesapeake.

First mate Beauty McFarland, Aja, and the rest of the Rascals return, some with important roles to play in this tale that depends on outcomes prefaced by “if.” While Nicholas’s first encounter with Achille Zabana, the Barbary captain with a portable beheading machine, is breathtaking, and the capture of Little Eddy provides additional impetus to go to Algiers, Nicholas and Aja’s furtive visit into Algiers is less plausible since their knowledge of the city, culture, and language is decidedly lacking. Even so, the denouement is galvanizing.

Single strands of diverse threads – Barbary slavery, international intrigue, heart-pounding sea battles, crafty subterfuge, ghastly torments, and vicious pirates – coalesce into a stirring gamble that affects characters and readers alike. Fans of the Nicholas Fallon Sea Novels will find this as immersive as the previous two books; newcomers will be lured by enthralling challenges and rich characters, especially Little Eddy who almost steals the stage from Nicholas.




View all my reviews