The Colonial Post-Captain: (1 Carlisle and Holbrooke Naval Adventures)

The Western Mediterranean, 1756. An uneasy peace is about to be shattered as France's greatest living general prepares an invasion force in Toulon; but where is it bound? Captain Carlisle hails from Virginia, a loyal colony of the British Crown. As the clouds of war gather, Carlisle's small frigate--Fury--is ordered to Toulon on a reconnaissance mission. If battling the winter weather in the Gulf of Lions is not a sufficient challenge, Carlisle must also juggle the delicate diplomatic issues in this period of pre-war tension while contending with an increasingly belligerent French frigate. But Carlisle has additional problems unique to his colonial origins: he has no professional or political sponsors and an uninspiring group of followers, both of which are essential to a mid-eighteenth century naval career. How can a penniless second son from Virginia overcome these crippling deficiencies? George Holbrooke, Carlisle's reluctant master's mate, cannot disguise his lack of enthusiasm for the tedium of the peacetime navy. His attitude changes as he experiences combat and personal danger, but can he persuade his captain that he has turned the corner? And can he achieve that vital promotion to commissioned status? And then there is the beautiful Chiara Angelini, pursued across the Mediterranean by a Tunisian corsair who appears determined to abduct her, yet reluctant to shed blood. Can Carlisle solve this mystery and protect Chiara? Fury shadows the French fleet as it sails from Toulon and reveals its true destination. Carlisle and Holbrooke are witnesses to the inconclusive sea-battle, which leads to the loss of Minorca, and engage in a thrilling and bloody final encounter with the French frigate.

About the Author :
Chris Durbin spent twenty-four years as a warfare officer in the Royal Navy, serving in all classes of ship from aircraft carriers through destroyers and frigates to the smallest minesweepers. He took part in operational campaigns in the Falkland Islands, the Middle East, and the Adriatic. As a personnel exchange officer, he spent two years teaching tactics at a U.S. Navy training center in San Diego. On his retirement from the Royal Navy, Chris joined a large American company and spent eighteen years in the aerospace, defense and security industry, including two years on the design team for the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. Chris is a graduate of the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, the British Army Command and Staff College, the United States Navy War College (where he gained a postgraduate diploma in national security decision-making), and Cambridge University (where he was awarded an MPhil in International Relations). Steven Crossley is one of a select group of narrators who have recorded over two hundred audiobooks. He has won multiple AudioFile Earphones Awards, including for The Ground Beneath Her Feet by Salman Rushdie and Sharpe's Fury by Bernard Cornwell. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and has established an acting career on both sides of the Atlantic in theater, television, film, and radio drama, performing with distinguished theater companies in New York and London. He is a member of the internationally acclaimed company Complicite. His audiobook performances cover an eclectic range of subjects in both fiction and nonfiction, from thrillers, mysteries, classics, and histories to children's fantasy and biographies.These include works by such writers as Pat Barker, Joseph Conrad, Oscar Wilde, Sebastian Faulkes, Zadie Smith, Ian McKewan, and Tana French.