Set in 1796 during the French Revolutionary Wars, Ramage opens with the British frigate Sibella shattered by a stronger French warship. Lieutenant Nicholas Ramage awakens wounded amid wreckage to find every officer above him dead, leaving him responsible for saving the survivors of a ship that can no longer fight or sail.
Secret orders then pull him from disaster at sea into a mission on the enemy-held Tuscan coast. With an open boat and a handful of exhausted seamen, Ramage attempts to rescue influential Italian refugees, including the formidable Marchesa di Volterra, while French cavalry and political enemies close in. The novel establishes the combination that drives the series: practical seamanship, abrupt command decisions and covert work ashore, all shaped by the Mediterranean struggle between Britain and Revolutionary France.
Alexander Kent
28 books
Julian Stockwin
29 books
Dewey Lambdin
25 books
David Donachie
47 books
Adrian Westbrooke
9 books