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A thriller of skullduggery and smuggling, politics and passion, in the Carribean waters, with a twentieth-century Sharpe at the helm.

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5 reviews
I consider this my favourite of Cornwell's thrillers. The book is pacy and difficult to put down. There is excellent characterisation, vivid despecriptions of people and places, and while the nautical jargon may be hard for some it is not overbearing.

Johnny is a very likeable character, a carefree rebel who has disowned his family past and who engratiates himself with those his family despise. His relationship with his sister, Georgina, makes him all the more likeable as I see it. The book has a nice twist though the more often you read it you will notice the subtle hints throughout the text. It is a book I have read several times, however.

Lord John Rossendale was a protaganist in the Sharpe series. It is unclear whether the two show more characters are related but they may very well be. The family history implies such in my opinion. show less
As a thriller/mystery this novel did not deliver. Maybe 20% of the book held my attention but the rest of it was quite predictable and frankly boring. For an author who gives such detail in the Grail series this book was a disappointment. I made a guess as to one of the villains in the story from the beginning, I won't be a spoiler and say who it was but his character was drawn so poorly I felt that he had to be a bad guy. My least favourite book so far for Cornwell.
½
"Killer's Wake" by Bernard Cornwell is part of Mr. Cornwell's lesser known series of novels and is a nautical thriller. Whereas Mr. Cornwell's other books are wall-to-wall testosterone fueled vengeance, his thrillers are slightly less so, ever so slightly thankfully. However, revenge and settling scores are at the forefront of this novel and plexus punching sailing action is the reader's reward. And of course the novel is chock full of the exactness and care to the minutiae detail I've come to expect from Mr. Cornwell. Come my next visit to the bookstore, I will definitely be searching the stacks for another one of Mr. Cornwell's seaworthy thrillers.
½
Thoroughly enjoyable sea thriller.
è scritto in lingua straniera a me totalmente ignota(quella dei marinai). Nonostante ciò c'è una certa forza narrativa che mi ha permesso di arrivare alla fine volando sulle onde senza (s)cazzare

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159+ Works 93,023 Members
Bernard Cornwell was born in London, England, on February 23, 1944, and came to the United States in 1980. He received a B.A. from the University of London in 1967. Cornwell served as producer of the British Broadcasting Corporation from 1969-1976. After this he was head of current affairs for BBC-TV in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In 1979 he became show more editor of television news for Thames Television of London. Since 1980 he has been a freelance writer. he lives with his wife on Cape Cod. Cornwell's Sharpe series, adventure stories about a British soldier set in the Peninsula War of 1808-1814, are built on the author's interest in the Duke of Wellington's army. Titles include Sharpe's Rifles, Sharpe's Revenge, Sharpe's Siege, Sharpe's Regiment, and Sharpe's Waterloo. The Last Kingdom series has ten books. Book ten, The Flame Bearer is on the bestsellers list. He has also written other works including Wildtrack, Killer's Wake, Sea Lord, Stormchild, Rebel, Copperhead, and Battle Flag. His title Death of Kings made The New York Times Best Seller List in 2012 and In 2014 his title The Pagan Lord made the list again. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

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D'Achille, Gino (Cover artist)

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Common Knowledge

Canonical title
Sea Lord
Original title
Sea Lord
Alternate titles
Killer's Wake
Original publication date
1989
People/Characters
Johnny Rossendale (Earl of Stowey); Jennifer Pallavicini
Important places
Salcombe, Devon, England, UK
Dedication
Killer's Wake is dedicated to
Diedree and Oscar Morong,
Masters under God of the good vessel
Diedree-Anne.
First words
I didn't want to go home.
Lazy water lapped at Sunflower's hull. (Epilogue)
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Not because I was staring at the sun, but because I had come home, and was crying.
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And Sunflower's a proper boat, and Jennifer's happy again, and the oceans are huge, and love seems to touch even the mundane with gladness; in short, it's a proper job. (Epilogue)
Disambiguation notice
Sea Lord is also published as Killer's Wake

Classifications

Genres
Fiction and Literature, Suspense & Thriller, Historical Fiction
DDC/MDS
823.914Literature & rhetoricEnglish & Old English literaturesEnglish fiction1900-1901-19991945-1999
LCC
PR6053 .O75 .S43Language and LiteratureEnglishEnglish Literature1961-2000
BISAC

Statistics

Members
281
Popularity
114,154
Reviews
5
Rating
½ (3.71)
Languages
7 — English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Portuguese
Media
Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
ISBNs
22
ASINs
5