Last weekend, while down in Los Angeles for the Women’s World Cup, I finished the last few pages of The Thirteen Gun Salute, book number 13 (coincidence?) in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series. Most of the book is spent in Malaysia, ferrying a diplomatic mission to Pulo Prabang. All through the book, I was wondering exactly where Pulo Prabang was, so I just looked around a bit on the web. I didn’t get a map, but I did find a book I might have to get: Harbors and High Seas: An Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O’Brian. I’ve wanted a map before this volume, but I really wanted it here, even if much of the action was land-bound. I won’t dig into a plot summary here, but Wray and Ledward — two English traitors working for the French — are killed, and the only question that lingers (O’Brian doesn’t answer it, I think) is whether or not Maturin does it himself. I think he does, which settles a score which lingered through many volumes. The novel ends with the ship’s company beached by a typhoon, and just waking up to the post-storm task of having to build themselves a new boat.
I’m going to take a short break from Aubrey-Maturin, in part because I need to pick up the rest in the series. Still looking forward to the movie, though, which is now getting television advertisements, although it’s nearly four weeks away.