The Shadow of the Eagle

Name: The Shadow of the Eagle
Rating: 4.3 (275 reviews)

by Richard Woodman Book 13 in the Nathaniel Drinkwater series.

First published 1997

Amazon

4.2(275)

In 1814 Napoleon has abdicated and Louis XVIII is escorted back to France as Europe celebrates what appears to be the end of a generation of war. Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater joins the royal movement but receives intelligence suggesting that the new peace is much less secure than governments publicly claim.

The restoration of the Bourbon monarchy changes alliances without removing Bonapartist networks or the ambitions created by years of conflict. Drinkwater must determine whether the reported threat is merely a remnant of the old war or evidence that the settlement itself is already unstable. The novel uses the uneasy peace to show how intelligence work continues after fleets stop fighting.