The Barbed Crown
An Ethan Gage Adventure
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4.4, 23 Ratings
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- $6.99
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
In The Barbed Crown, the sixth tale of rogue and adventurer Ethan Gage by William Dietrich, our hero returns to Paris and London. Against a background of imperial pomp and the gathering clouds of war, Gage plots revenge on Napoleon Bonaparte for the kidnap of his son.
Paris, the “City of Lights,” shines – but alongside its splendor is great squalor. Heroic patriotism rubs against mean ambition, while grand strategy and back-alley conspiracy are never far apart.
While Ethan spies on the French court, his wife, Astiza, works to sabotage Napoleon’s coronation using the Crown of Thorns, a legendary relic said to have come from the Crucifixion itself. But when Napoleon is crowned nonetheless, they flee to England.
At Walmer Castle on the English coast, Gage joins a daring campaign by Smith, Fulton, rocket inventor William Congreve and smuggler Tom Johnstone to halt Napoleon’s intended invasion of England – a campaign which leads Ethan to take a role in the Battle of Trafalgar itself…
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1804, Dietrich s exuberant sixth Ethan Gage adventure finds Gage back in Europe, after his frantic search for Montezuma s treasure in 2012 s The Emerald Storm, spying for the British on his sometime friend and usual nemesis, Napoleon Bonaparte, on the eve of the French leader s coronation. The plot twists one way then another, in wildly uproarious fashion, as Gage assisted by his Greek-Egyptian wife, Astiza works his way out of several tight spots and does his best to foil Napoleon s ambitions to invade England. As usual, the action builds to a dramatic climax, this one set during the Battle of Trafalgar, which Gage observes from the crow s nest of a French warship. Along the way, readers will be treated to Dietrich s fascinating touches of historical detail and Gage s infectious personality, one part humble global servant and two parts self-directed opportunist who simply has to be where the action is.
