Stranded in Malta, Captain Jack Aubrey and surgeon Stephen Maturin must
be careful, for the salons and dockyards are infested with Napoleon's
spies, and there is a traitor in the British intelligence network. This
installment of Patrick O'Brian's "20-volume masterpiece" (Christopher
Hitchens) takes Aubrey and Maturin sailing on the pirate-plagued waters
of the Red Sea, trudging over the Sinai Peninsula and even the depths of
the sea floor in their efforts to stay one step ahead of the treachery
afoot.