"A desperate sea battle; a fortune risked on the turn of a card; a duel at dawn with the loser ... Patrick O'Brian meets James Bond. The year is 1803, and the British Secret Service is contending with a belligerent France under Napoleon. The service suffers a blow in the loss of a prime agent, Thomas Grey, who-despondent at his wife's untimely death-resigns from British Intelligence and departs England for Boston, where he intends to become a lumber...