London's Marshalsea Prison and Cornwall, 1812

The late Earl of Roxburgh gambled away his fortune before putting paid to his life. Too bad he didn't put paid to his debts, instead. With no male heir, his title and estates revert to the crown. That's not to say he had no heir at all, however. It is left to his daughter, Lady Lark Eddington, to suffer the consequences of his obsession...imprisonment for debt.

I won't try to chronicle Lark's time in the dismal, dangerous prison; the author describes that to great effect. On the bright side, Lark makes a friend in Agnes Garwood, a widowed milliner, and Lark's release is bought by the Earl of Grayshire, late of the Royal Navy. The earl, Basil Kingston, known as King, plans to marry to beget an heir. He's at Marshalsea to hire a companion for his mother. In spite of his mother's philanthropic side -- he hopes to please her by releasing an innocent -- the countess is tactfully described as "difficult" or "eccentric." The truth is, if King is to have any peace after marriage, he needs his mother to relinquish her role as chatelaine to his bride and move to the dower house.

As things fall out, King buys Agnes out of gaol as well, and the three head for Cornwall...but not before making a couple of enemies. And not before King is called before the Admiralty, where one of his ships is commissioned and he is issued a Letter of Marque. So now he has orders to capture enemy ships and strip them of their cargo on behalf of the Crown. The problem with that is that it puts King between a rock -- his king and country -- and a hard place -- the people and friends at home who live off the generations-old "trade" of smuggling and salvaging from the sea.

Lark is an innocent, but she's strangely attracted to Lord Grayshire. She's not at all put off by his loss of an eye. The sole eye remaining fascinates her. Though her days in prison were terrifying, she begins to trust King and looks forward to companioning his mother -- her own died at her birth. Lark has inner strength which she will need in the days to come.

Lark is on King's mind as well, but his future wife is chosen. He just needs to settle his mother and his other business and he'll make an offer for Lady Ann Cuthbertson.

THE PRIVATEER arrived at RRT at the last minute, and I'm very glad I was able to squeeze it in. It's an exciting book with a fresh plot and likable, life-like characters. Don't give up on the old countess; though she was not the best of mothers, she had reason to be cranky. Besides those named above, others of importance are King's half brother; his steward; and Lady Ann and her aunt.

THE PRIVATEER follows Ms. MacTavish's debut book for Dorchester Publishing, THE MARSH HAWK, which shares settings but is otherwise unconnected. She also writes paranormal historicals and erotic fantasies for other publishing houses as Dawn Thompson. I haven't read those, but I readily recommend THE PRIVATEER.

Jane Bowers