A Shot Rolling Ship Audiobook By David Donachie cover art

A Shot Rolling Ship

John Pearce, Book 2

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A Shot Rolling Ship

By: David Donachie
Narrated by: Peter Wickham
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Pressed into King George's navy for the second time in a month, John Pearce finds himself working aboard HMS Griffin, sailing the Channel in search of the numerous French privateers preying on English merchant ships.

Pearce, however, has other things on his mind. He must find a way off the ship in order to rescue his ailing father from the dangers of revolutionary Paris.

By inciting mutiny he hopes to escape the ship unnoticed. But travelling to France, John Pearce discovers that his worst fears have become reality. All he can do is return to the Griffin - and exact his revenge.

©2005 David Donachie (P)2005 Soundings Action & Adventure Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Mystery Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Fiction Royalty Suspense

Critic reviews

"High adventure and detection; cunningly spliced battle scenes which reek of blood, brine, and excitements on terra firma to match." ( The Literary Review)
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This is book two of the John Pearce historical novel series. In this book John Pearce and comrades, the so called Pelicans, find themselves aboard the HMS Griffin, a slow, overcrowded ship. The ship is tasked to stop the French privateers that are raiding the English merchant ship in the Channel. The time frame is 1793, and in the prior book John was trying to save his father from the guillotine in Paris when he was caught by a Press gang in a London pub called the Pelican. The men that were captured with him stayed together and call themselves the Pelicans. The first two books are different from other naval stories of this period in that the hero is a landlubber that has entered the navy via a press gang and has to learn to be a sailor. The other books have the hero as an officer and are career navy. In this book John is still trying to save his father and is serving on a naval vessel in the English Channel. You will have to read the book to find out if he is successful in saving his father.

The book is well written, with memorable characters and has some great moments of action that is quite gripping. Donachie makes his characters come alive. The author uses less nautical terms than some of the other authors writing in the genre. The story is well paced and engaging. Donachie astutely blends fact with fiction.

David Donachie was born in Edinburgh in 1944. He writes under a number of pseudomonas. He has an interest in naval history of the 18th and 19th century. Currently he lives in Deal Kent with his wife the novelist Sarah Grazebrook and their two children. He wrote the Nelson and Emma Trilogy about Horatio Nelson and Emma Hamilton. I am looking forward to reading book three in the series. Peter Wickham narrated the book.

Rollicking yarn

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