Havoc's Sword: An Alan Lewrie naval adventure

Alan Lewrie #11

by Dewey Lambdin

The loveable but incorrigible rogue Captain Alan Lewrie is back to cut a wide and wicked swathe through the Caribbean in his eleventh adventure.

It’s 1798, and Lewrie and his crew of the frigate Proteus have their work cut out for them. First Lewrie has rashly vowed to uphold a friend’s honour in a duel to the death. Secondly, he faces the horridly unwelcome arrival of HM Government’s Foreign Office Agents (out to use him as their cat’s paw in a scheme against the French). And lastly, he engineers the showdown with his arch foe and nemesis, the hideous ogre of the French Revolution’s Terror, that clever fiend Guillaume Choudas!

We know Lewrie can fight, but can he be a diplomat too? He must deal with the newly reborn US Navy, that uneasy ally, and the stunning surprise they bring. For good or ill, Lewrie’s in the ‘quag’ up to his neck this time. Can sword, pistol and broadsides avail? Or will words, low cunning and Lewrie’s irrepressible wit be the key to his victory and survival, as even the seas cry ‘havoc’?

Eleventh in The Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures, Havoc's Sword  is perfect for fans of Patrick O'Brian, Julian Stockwin and C.S. Forester.

‘You could get addicted to this series. Easily’ New York Times Book Review

'The best naval series since C. S. Forester… Recommended’ Library Journal

‘Fast-moving… A hugely likeable hero, a huge cast of sharply drawn supporting characters: there's nothing missing. Wonderful stuff’ Kirkus Reviews

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Historical, Adventure, Nautical, War

382 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Dewey Lambdin (1945-2021 ) was an American nautical historical novelist. He was best known for his Alan Lewrie naval adventure series, set during the Napoleonic Wars. Besides the Alan Lewrie series, he was also the author of What Lies Buried: a novel of Old Cape Fear.

A self-proclaimed "Navy Brat," Lambdin spent a good deal of his early days on both coasts of the U.S.A., and overseas duty stations, with his father. His father enlisted as a Seaman Recruit in 1930, was "mustanged" from the lower deck (from Yeoman chief Petty Officer) at Notre Dame in '42, and was career Navy until May of 1954, when he was killed at sea aboard the USS Bennington CVA-20 (see below), on which he served as Administrative Officer, 5th in line-of-command (posthumous Lieutenant Commander).

Lambdin himself attended Castle Heights Military Academy, graduated in 1962, and was destined to be the family's first "ring-knocker" from the U.S. Naval Academy, "... until he realised that physics, calculus, and counting higher than ten were bigger than he was."[1] He studied at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, majoring in Liberal arts and Theatre, where he was published in The Theme Vault in 1963, also reprinted in a national textbook, which whetted his appetite for writing. However, he failed his degree. He finally graduated with a degree in Film & TV Production from Montana State University, Bozeman, in 1969. This was considered at the time to be the McHale's Navy of the academic set, so the nautical influence was still at work. He has worked for a network affiliate TV station as a producer/director for twelve years, an independent station as production manager and senior director/writer/ producer for three years, all in Memphis, and as a writer/producer with a Nashville advertising/production facility, or in free-lance camera, lighting and writing.

He has been a sailor since 1976 and spends his free time working and sailing on his beloved sloop Wind Dancer, with a special taste for cruising the Gulf of Mexico. Mr. Lambdin has thus far resisted the temptation to trade his beloved typewriter for a computer. He lived in Nashville, Tennessee.

He was a member of the U.S. Naval Institute, a Friend of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England; Cousteau Society; the former American Film Institute; and the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
-Wikipedia

Mr Lambdin passed away on July 26, 2021 at the age of 76.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/deweyl...

Reviews

[Mike (the Paladin) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will be assuming that you have read the prior books in this series therefore there will be at least minor spoilers for those earlier books.


Here we go again, at sea with Alan Lewrie...in more ways than one. I've mentioned before that I like this series except for any time Alan leaves his ship. Then the novels slow down...abominably. This can be especially true of accounts of Alan's love life. Well, in earlier volumes Alan's amorous adventures have finally turned and bitten him on the....well, they turned and bit him.

You see Alan's wife and HER children have become aware of Alan's mistress and HER child, by Alan. No one came away from this particularly happy. BUT Alan has much less reason to leave his ship now. While there are a few things that slow this one down and there were a few places where my mind wandered..but fewer.

Of course all the fruits of Alan's wild oats haven't come in in this book Alan meets another son, as it happens his first, though up until now they hadn't been aware of their relationship. You see during the American Revolution there was this beautiful Indian/Native American girl....

This time we will be involved in some great sea action some of it including the new American Navy...and of course there is the return of Alan's arch Nemesis, again. I like this book and I like this series...mostly. There is some great action and then there's some romance. I'm sure some of you will like that a bit more than me, LOL. Four stars.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refreshingly naval and full of action. Unlike some of the recent books in the series this one managed to maintain constant naval interest with Lewrie being at see for most of the book plotting destruction against his nemesis Choundas. There's also the demise of Leonard Beaumann who proves he is such a snivell8ng unworthy against Kit Cashman. It's this sort of constant action that makes the books interesting and gripping rather than having to plough through pages of shorebased or relationship-based waffle until you get to the interesting bits in the final 20pages - please keep the style light like this one!
There's an interesting plot twist when Lewrie meets the son of Soft Rabbit who is now an American Midshipman; it takes Lewrie rather a long time to put two and two together! However this throwback to a previous book (apparently 15years which seems implausible....) also brings throwbacks to a younger and more mischievous Lewrie....

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in Book 3 Lieutenant Lewrie while on a mission in Florida has an assignation with an Indian slave named soft rabbit. He marries her in a local ceremony and leaves her pregnant. In Book 11 Lewrie, now in the Caribbean, meets up with a US Navy frigate and in the process of telling war tales at a drunken dinner lets drop about his adventures in Florida. The Captain of the US ship immediately realizes that Lewrie is the father of his erstwhile nephew, now a midshipman in the US Navy. So Lewrie has another son and another complication to his already complicated life of three gits in his marriage to Caroline, a son Alan, by the Greek woman Theonie he rescued in the Mediteranean and now another bastard, a very earnest sixteen year old named Desmond who Lewrie is immediately drawn to. Plot wise my guess is that this attachment will lead yet another conflict with Captain Chaundas, his enemy through several installments now. At the end of Book 11 Chaundas is captured by the US Navy in battle and has given his parole to the Bible thumping Captain Goodhall of the US Navy (not the uncle of Desmond). At the end of Book 11 Lewrie is feverishly writing letters to friends warning them of Chaundas worried that Chaundas will attempt to kill Desmond to get his revenge on Lewrie. Throughout these books so far there are frequent nods or homages to Patrick O’Brien whose Captain Aubrey also had a bastard son, a half black and a Catholic priest when Jack Aubrey finally meets him. Save for his black skin he is the spitting image of Aubrey. Desmond, half Indian, closelynresembles Alan Lewrie.

One thing O’Brien didn’t have in his books was cats. Apparently, Mr. Lambdin must be a cat fancier because from Alan’s days serving under Capt. Lillycroft, there has always been a cat or cats on board. First it was William Pitt who was instrumental in gaining Alan his first command. At the evacuation of Toulon Lewrie came into possession of yet another cat he named after the sad city. So, Toulon has been a regular in the last several books. Near the end of Book 11 Desmond gives Alan the present of a kitten, a white one he names Chalky. Chalky and Toulon have the run of the ship and add to the chores of Alan’s servant who must now feed and care for two cats making sure their cat box is full of clean sand and they are hustled down below when the guns begin to bark. Book 11 seems like something of a transition book. Read by the inimitable John Lee who gets to demonstrate his facility with American accents, Lewrie appears to have gotten the better of the pedophile Chaundas once again. But Chaundas is much like a cockroach and though battered and beaten, lives on to cause commotion in future books.

In the Aubrey/Maturin series, Maturin is an intelligence agent who is actually the main character of the series. There is a strong element of spy vs spy in the Alan Lewrie series as well with Mr. Twigg in two earlier books and now with Mr. Twigg in retirement his replacement Mr Pellam takes the stage. Pellam, sadly, overrates himself and hasn’t the skill of Mr Twigg and is disdainful of Lewrie’s skills as well. I find I’m continually making comparisons to the Aubrey/Maturin books which, I must confess, I’ve read three times through. There are similarities but also a huge difference. O’Brien’s work I consider “literature” and the most underrated books of our time. O’Brien’s work is description driven where Lambdin’s are dialogue driven. This isn’t to denigrate Mr Lambdin who has kept me entertained now for many hours and I’m not half way through the series yet. Lambdin is, in fact, a master of dialogue and the books read by John Lee are like an endlessly fascinating and engaging radio play that continues to deliver.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just find many of the books in this series a bit too "earthy". Lambdin seems to be writing about his own fantasies that would likely never play out in real life, even among 19th-century sailors. That aside, the setting in the Caribbean makes for interesting reading and fills in some historical understanding. Some of the sequences are a bit fantastical, but make for a good story. If you're reading the series, you'll enjoy this one.

[Sunhawk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reliably readable. I'm reasonably sure that there is some repeated material, and different readers will be looking for thrills in different places, but I am amazed (and amused) to see how well Dewey sustains the storyline while developing the main characters, especially our doughty hero, Alan Lewrie. I will continue to follow this good man right up to #26 ...or will there be a 27th?

[Roger Coates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not full of exciting Naval actions, but so significant in context of the greater story line, so as not to be missed. Full of interesting, and dangerous characters both New and Old. Lewrie, at his best and worst and most vulnerable.

[Frederick R Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read from Dewey

I'm hooked for the rest of Lewrie!. I can't ever get enough.blah blah blah blah blah and more blah blah. Who thought up the number of words requirement for a review should be carted.

[John Boyda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lewrie battles old and new foes (on both sides of the flag) in this Caribbean tale. As always a great tale with an all too human protagonist

[Charlie Shaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

To much land manouvering!

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent addition to the series

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the better ones. Lots of swashbuckling, but Lewie is getting a bit tame.

[David Hull · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enjoyable, highly amusing in places, read as usual!

[Mr.Wade · Rating 4 out of 5]

That frog will never die. Alan needs to finish cutting his legs off and his remaining arm, then toss him in the sea and call him BOB.

[Marc Altman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The adventures continue. This book closes a few open questions from the prior few books, but still leaves the big Choudas resolution (which seemed to be promised) still open.

[Frank Mihlon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took forever!

The "plot", as it was took forever to develop. Once it FINALLY happened the book ended without any resolution. Disappointing work from an able author.

[Johnny · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s unusual, these days, for me to listen to a novel on CD rather than to read one on my commuter train. However, I prepared to drive on a lengthy trip by visiting my local library and checking out their Books on CD collection. I was delighted to find a fighting sail novel by Dewey Lambdin that I hadn’t read, Havoc’s Sword and even more delighted as I began to listen to the fabulous performance by John Lee. Lee is truly a one-man show with spot-on local accents and enough vocal variety that one never confuses one character with another. I loved it.

The novel is not as full of action as one normally expects in a fighting sail story, but the few examples offer a variety of tactical challenges and situations. They are tense, dramatic, realistic, and satisfying. Mercifully, the reader (listener) is also spared the usual cliché within the genre of the active captain being misunderstood by clueless politicians, ambitious career officers (with inadequate practical experience), and nobles with class prejudice or specific grudges. In fact, such rivalry and venom shows up more among the enemy rather than among the “good guys” in this adventure.

Oh, there is an interesting bit of intrigue between a character with a direct line of authority over an established member of the supporting cast (who appears in several of the Lewrie novels) and this self-same supporting character. However, the interplay is more about Lewrie teaching the supporting character about “interpreting” commands than about the overarching tension of making independent decisions when one’s superiors wish one ill.

The tension, fascinating and riveting, is primarily between Lewrie’s bête noir, Guillaume Chaundas, and our dynamic, heroic Captain Lewrie. Chaundas, of course, has been defeated and maimed by Lewrie in previous adventures and one doesn’t have to read/listen very far into the novel before Chaundas is blooded once again. Yet, Chaundas’ assumption is that Lewrie couldn’t possibly be smart enough to have intercepted him (by surprise) without assistance from some spy within his command. One of the tremendously satisfying aspects of Havoc’s Sword is the way Chaundas’ own paranoia helps unravel some of his most prized plans.

Lambdin’s marvelous descriptions of sailing maneuvers and technical terms are always satisfying to me.
I always learn a little more about the way certain rigging might have been used or the order in which procedures needed to occur. In this novel, the sailing details are intricately entwined in an ambush scenario. Orders are passed quietly and one can almost hear the creaking of the rigging and the whisper of the hawsers as one ship sneaks up upon an unsuspecting one. The way Lambdin weaves the words and images together reminded me of a film scene where the accompanying soundtrack provides perfect harmony and counterpoint to the action.

In one sense, Lewrie outsmarts himself in this adventure. Realizing that one portion of his mission makes no sense at worst and success is improbable at best, he recreates the mission to include some unlikely allies. And, of course, those allies end up both helping and hindering his personal ambition. And, true to a series of mystery adventures, the denouement sets up not one, but at least two potential problems in the future. It made me smile, as well as anticipate my next sail with Lewrie.

[john temple · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intrigue after intrigue

This latest in the seagoing adventures of Alan Lewrie ( number 11), puts the anti hero in the Caribbean and as usual he has the knack of rubbing his superiors up the wrong way, for reasons known only to them. He also has to contend with the replacement for his old irritant Mr Twigg, the honourable Mr Pelham. Who is a caricature of an over inflated member of the aristocracy. Although by this stage in the game Lewrie is a slight more subtle in his own planning and scheming. Thrown in to the mix is his "by-blow" by soft rabbit, Desmond Mcgilleray, now a midshipmen in the USN. Whom I'm sure will feature in future episodes. He is at the end of this book in some danger and I for one hope he survives

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of new story threads... there's plenty of intrigue but I felt the ending was weak. If French commander Choundas is supposed to have such a fierce reputation, why was he suckered into an battle that he could not have won? Why was he so over-confident? And why was he suckered into believing his innocent clerk as a spy? Because as a spy, when the information is too neat, too convincing, and too good to be true, he would have realized something is off. Overall, it was a very good book because the author creates very interesting characters are faithful to the mores and attitudes of that time period.

[Aspen Junge · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the entire series largely back-to-back (my local public library is well-stocked). One of the great things about this series is that we get to watch Alan Lewrie, the main character, grow up from a callow, self-indulgent teenager to a mature, thoughtful, and responsible adult.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Pirates of the Caribbean, but with English Navy vs. the French Navy, with the Americans pitching in against the French.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Felt like I needed more education about ships and the history of the period before I could begin to follow this book--especially listening to it while driving.

[Paul Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent as always.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Been working my way through this series and have been enjoying it, obviously. This one wasn't a good as some of the others in the series

[Don Casto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still a great story . . .but this one went too far with the dialog in French again.

[Stephen]

Like

[Eric · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow starter builds to action, ends.