Publishers Weekly
Royal Navy officer-turned-privateer Harry Ludlow might get rich capturing French trade ships, an activity sanctioned under the wartime rules of 1793. In David Donachie's first book, The Devil's Own Luck: The Privateersmen Mysteries, Harry's brother James is accused of murder, and they find themselves in trouble with corrupt naval officers as the war rages around them. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
The Bookbag
Exciting and unpredictable.
Literary Review
High adventure and detection; cunningly spliced battle scenes which reek of blood and brine; excitements on terra firma to match.
Historical Novels Review Online
Pure adventure with excitement and daring all the way. .. historical fiction at its very best.
Cambridge Evening News
Outflanking and out-gunning C. S. Forester.
Daily Sport
High-speed epic from an ace storyteller.
From the Publisher
"With vivid and accurate shipboard action, storm havoc and battle scenes, Donachie has made Ludlow the most compulsively readable amateur detective since Dick Francis' latest ex-jockey." —Cambridge Evening News
"Deftly combining two genres, a salty blend of seafaring adventure and whodunit . . . period flavour robustly done, excitements watertight." —Times Literary Review
