The Devil's Own Luck

by David Donachie

Overview

1793: Harry Ludlow, forced out of the Royal Navy, becomes a privateer in partnership with his younger brother James. But for the Ludlows, murder and intrigue take more of their time than hunting fat trading vessels. Harry and James find themselves aboard the Navy's 74-gun Magnanime. In command is a captain with whom Harry has crossed swords in the past. When James is found standing over the body of a dead officer, Harry's feud shifts into the background.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590130049
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	10/01/2001
Series:	The Privateersman Mysteries , #1
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

David Donachie (1944–2023) was born in Edinburgh. He always had an abiding interest in military history, including ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, the British navy of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the clandestine services during the Second World War. He had more than fifty published novels to his credit, with over a million combined sales. David lived in Deal, the historic English seaport on the border of the English Channel and the North Sea.

Editorial Reviews

Exciting and unpredictable.

The Bookbag

High adventure and detection; cunningly spliced battle scenes which reek of blood and brine; excitements on terra firma to match.

Literary Review

Pure adventure with excitement and daring all the way. .. historical fiction at its very best.

Historical Novels Review Online

Outflanking and out-gunning C. S. Forester.

Cambridge Evening News

High-speed epic from an ace storyteller.

Daily Sport

"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

From the Publisher

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.

Publishers Weekly