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...
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