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Set in late Victorian America with the Navy adjusting to lightning change, this second book in the Starke series finds Calypso held in Key West; unaware she will join the Revenue Service Cutter Vanguard to hunt and stop a Junta filibuster expedition led by anarchists. Captain Sydney Albert, now a special assistant to the Secretary of the Navy, has committed the wood-sheathed steam bark and her heterogeneous crew to this dubious task; temporarily diverting Lieutenant Starke from orders to stalk the Caribbean and disrupt Junta filibusters ferrying men, arms, and supplies to Cuba. While the expedition’s anarchists believe their cause justifies any act, no laws or customs apply, and Cuban independence the surest path to toppling European governments, Starke must remain within the law and still prevent the artillery and artillerists from reaching Cuban insurrectos. Albert is gambling the elderly steam bark, designed for conversion to a raider, and her young commander can intercept and deal with the filibuster expedition while he crosses swords with the Junta, jingoes, and press. Victorian Washington, Key West, Veracruz, Pinar del Rio, Havana, and a magnificent coral reef off the Yucatan Peninsula provide the stage where Starke must play out a hand that includes Captain Albert, Calypso, his crew, an expatriated father, formidable uncle, determined aunt, ambivalent British widow, intrepid female reporter, and correspondent confidant.
