Treason’s Harbour

Perhaps more than in any other of the previous 7(!) books in the Aubrey-Maturin series, Treason’s Harbour occupies the real and messy world of international intrigue, espionage, and politics. Whereas a man-of-war, even one as small as Jack Aubrey’s beloved 28(?)-gun HMS Surprise, is self-contained, the ports and towns of Europe in the throes of the Napoleonic Wars are rife with enemy agents, unscrupulous dockyard managers and, in the case of colony ports, disaffected locals. Thus, the Maltese port of Valetta, where HMS Surprise is laid up for refit, is a place of both opportunity and danger for British intelligence agent Stephen Maturin. The danger lies in the existence of high-ranking French agents who well know his activities and identity. The opportunity lies in Laura Fielding, wife of a captured English officer whose welfare in a French prison relies (according to her handlers) on her successfully seducing and turning Stephen Maturin’s intelligence operation.

Because of the intrigue, “Lucky” Jack Aubrey is sent off on a couple of missions that are doomed to fail. This is not normally the plot of a rousing adventure story, but of course O’Brian is a master storyteller, sending Aubrey and Maturin off across the desert with a train of camels and a diving bell (!), and in another place trapping Surprise in a Mediterraean bay with three French warships closing in. I guess Jack uses up all his luck in escaping such traps, and has nothing left over for any victories, but that still gives us modern readers lots of Napoleonic naval detail and action to keep us entertained.

This is the 8th book in the series, so if you’ve made it this far, I assume there’s not much I can say that would induce you to purchase the book, or to even read the reviews! I know I’m going to read this book anyway (and the next one, and the next one) no matter what the reviews say. If you have got this far, though, I want to assure you that you’ll find what you’re looking for – more of the great O’Brian writing we’ve come to expect. Definitely as good as any other book in the series so far.

In his ninth outing with his Napoleonic War characters, naval officer Jack Aubrey and surgeon/spy Dr. Stephen Maturin, Patrick O’Brian focuses more on intrigue than on strictly naval activity. As a result, this novel is not quite so much fun as many of the others for the purely naval reader after a “Hornblower” like “fix.” It partakes more of the aura of a mystery, although the key to it is partly known to the reader as the action opens: Andrew Wray, the Treasury agent who is now working for British naval intelligence, has been corrupted by his gaming debts and is now working for the French. Therefore, everything that happens on Malta is immediately known to the French, and they set two traps for Capt. Aubrey on finding out about the missions he carries out in the course of this book.

I have noted in other reviews of O’Brian books that the author has a formidable grasp of the period, on land as well as by sea, and this ability has ample scope for expression in this book. As always, the period details are near perfect, even the appropriate slang is trotted out so we at least seem to be learning it. The intrigue is not uninteresting; a British lieutenant, captured earlier by the French, is forced to write letters to his wife, on the island, urging her to cooperate with French agents. Dr. Maturin finds out this is happening and suspects the husband has been executed, or will be soon, and after that the French will surely kill the wife once they are sure she will stop cooperating. In a tragi-comic subplot, Capt. Aubrey rescues her very large watchdog from a well (we are not informed that the spies threw him in, but it is clear that is one possibility). After that the dog adores him, and the entire population of Malta imagines he’s having an affair with its owner. Meanwhile, the woman is under instructions from the French to seduce Maturin and find out what he knows. Eventually, both “affairs” (neither was actually consummated) will produce great trouble with the respective wives of our heroes.

However, a third of the book goes by before Aubrey sets out on his first sea mission. This gives an impression the action proceeds at a rather sedate pace. This first voyage takes him to the Red Sea, one of the least pleasant places on earth according to the author’s description, where our heroes narrowly avoid sailing into a trap and losing their entire force. When they return, having also been victimized by a Bedouin attack on their land march across the Isthmus of Suez (no canal of course at this date), the commander in chief is fully aware his information flow has been compromised but not even Dr. Maturin recognizes Wray’s role in the leak.

Accordingly, the second mission, to North Africa, also turns out to be a trap, although Aubrey’s seamanship enables him to escape with little damage. Maturin rescues the lieutenant’s wife (and the lieutenant himself escapes from prison to rejoin the fleet), but the fact that the British command structure has been compromised is still not fully known. Therefore, this book not only has a somewhat unsatisfactory ending (redeemed, however, in later volumes), but also lacks a sufficient dose of the action – packed naval engagements we’ve come to enjoy in this series. Accordingly, I give it only 4 stars.

However, it is still a fun read and if you’re planning to read the entire canon, you can’t really skip any of the books, as the character development and even some of the plot devices will seem odd. Remember, trouble in both heroes’ marriages is awaiting them at home while they struggle with an enemy aware ahead of time of what their orders are.

Intrigue and action. What more is there. This book happens to lean more toward the intrigue but there’s no harm in that. The interesting thing is that I read this series long ago and have since read more recent writers in the genre with more modern sensibilities and language that I also love but find quite different from O’Brian or Pope. Nobody alive today can tell us which version of character and language is more accurate but I like the characters and language in a number of authors’ styles, including O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series. I am sometimes surprised to find myself laughing at the humor which was probably lost on me as a teenager when I first read the series. The characters are believable and human. The situations remind me so much of my own naval career (US Navy until 2008) in that what may seem small and out of the way in the grand scheme is large and important to the people assigned the smaller task or objective. O’Brian captures the essence of the era’s fighting sailor’s attitudes and concerns along with place and time so well that I often feel like I’m watching rather than reading the story. I recommend you read this but start with the first book and work your way to this then complete the series. You won’t go wrong.

Moor(see what I did there,lol) of a spy novel than epic naval crusade but still very intriguing…FYI just for OBrian newbies his way of endless describing of things or as I say setting the table for his tales is even more prevalent in this book and if youre ADHD youll probably think that this book should only have been maybe 150-200 pages instead of 360 and you wouldve still not missed anything. For me though thats kinda what draws me to his books…IMO

Whilst the style of writing and the details within the contextual period of the story continues to be excellent, this book, like its predecessor (within the series) seems to leave most of the action to the very end of the story. It felt like there is now a formula to how the story will be presented, leaving the reader with no surprises or unpredicted conclusion. However, as usual the detailed historical information remains fascinating, holding the readers interest to the very end of the story.

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