BWW Reviews: Lee Rowan's RANSOM is Engaging Summer Entertainment Reading

In 2005, the New York Times ran an article on romance novels, noting that romance novels were read by 51 million people a year, accounted for 49 percent of all paperback sales, and sold nearly one and a half billion dollars' worth of books annually. That's a lot of romance - and at the time, as the Times noted, the market was aimed almost exclusively at heterosexual women with heterosexual romance. The article's real focus was on the emerging market for same-sex romance novels.

The market for same-sex romances, which are popular with a large number of straight female readers as well as with LGBT readers, hasn't diminished since then. Like other romances, especially in these days of the self-published e-book, they tend to vary in quality, but some authors of same-sex romance, like some authors of more traditional romance fiction, tend to remain popular because of solid writing. One of those authors is Lee Rowan. Rowan's work, aside from falling within the erotic romance category, is also historical romance, some of the most thoroughly researched in the current business. For those readers who find the "romance" label unappealing, Rowan's work is currently published by Cheyenne Publishing, which lists the books as gay historical fiction, not as romances, and they do come with a high action/adventure quotient, as their plots are indeed primarily historical adventures. (In other words, you can justify them to your "romance novels rot your brain" friends, or to yourself, as historical adventure novels that happen to have a subplot dealing with characters' relationships.)

Rowan's recent works are in her "The Royal Navy" series - in order to give the most recent works context, as they revolve around the same two primary characters, we'll be reviewing the whole series over a brief period as all of the books are currently in print, and so repeated explanations of the original premise of the series will not be needed.

The first book in the series, first published in 2006 and still popular, is RANSOM. Set in 1796 during the Napoleonic Wars, it details the adventure of the captain and two younger officers of the naval frigate, HMS Calypso - Captain Sir Paul Andrew Smith, and more especially Midshipman (and Acting Lieutenant) David Archer and Lieutenant William Marshall. In Portsmouth after the capture of a French vessel, the Calypso in dock for substantial repairs, the captain takes his two younger officers to dinner with him, only to find themselves on a semi-permanent detour, kidnapped by pirates and held for ransom. Smith, a baronet, is wealthy in his own right, and Archer comes from a titled family, but Marshall is the son of a now-deceased clergyman, with no funds and no resources.

Captain Smith is held in upper-deck quarters, harassed regularly by the self-made captain of the irregular vessel, while Archer and Marshall are quartered, mainly together, below. Archer not only looks up to Marshall, slightly older and already a proven hero not only from the most recent battle but from the duel in which he saved the younger boys serving on the ship from the clutches of an older sailor with a pronounced interest in cabin boys. Unfortunately, that Marshall challenged the older man to a duel after being propositioned himself, and that he succeeded in killing the man, not only proves to Archer that Marshall is brave and resourceful, but that Marshall clearly could never be interested in him.

But there are more important questions than what to do about unrequited love - there is the immediate problem of escaping from an unknown vessel in an undetermined section of British coastal waters, one captained by an apparent former gentleman and manned by the dregs of seafaring society. Can any of the ship's seamen be turned - if so, can they be trusted? With no weapons or tools, can they find a way to force open the locked doors to their quarters? Can their own captain's ransom letters find their way to the Calypso, and if so, can the ship's trusty acting captain, Lieutenant Drinkwater, either find the demanded ransom money or the ship on which his officers are held?

And, of course, what is the pirate captain's object, other than courtesy to ransomed naval officers, in inviting the younger officers to dine with him? What will Archer and Marshall do to protect each other from the perils surrounding them while still on board their enemy's ship?

For those of us who read the Hornblower novels as children, the story is captivating in its attention to the minor details of ship's life on English vessels. The private wealth of officers dictating their shipboard comforts as well as both the quantity of and the comfort and appearance of their uniforms, the conditions of cabins, the freshness or staleness of sea biscuits - these are all addressed, as well as the other cultural conditions of shipboard life. They are the things that make sea novels live and breathe, and they are plentiful and accurate.

Seamanship is also at issue in such books - are the ships themselves believable, and are they being sailed properly, or merely staying afloat somehow while filled with cardboard sailors climbing up and down rigging? Rowan's ships, both naval and piratical, have real crew, with clear identities, performing all the necessary duties on board ship - sewing sails, working as cook's mate in the galley, serving as gunners. Her research on ships and on shipboard life brings realism to the story, yet it is incorporated properly, as part of the plot, and not thrown in for side dissertation (for which, read Victor Hugo, and note his side discussions on the Parisian sewer system, as examples of why this should never be done in a book intended for entertainment reading).

RANSOM has its share of the unlikely, but it is the unlikely that creates escapist reading, more so than utter realism does - yes, there are pirates secretly determined to serve His Majesty, and yes, secret messages are discovered just in the nick of time. And, naturally, there are evildoers who are harder to kill than wharf rats, people who transported on board ships in barrels, and would-be lovers who manage to have sparks ignite at just the right moment. That latter is, however, a major issue in the story - at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, sodomy, even consensual, was a hanging offense in His Majesty's Navy. If romance really depends upon lovers conquering insurmountable odds, the threat of execution is a pretty darn good set of insurmountable odds, even better than flying monkeys or greedy guardians set on fending off suitors. And speaking of sodomy - yes, this falls in the modern category of erotic romance novel, but it's relatively genteel; there isn't a lurid-encounter-per-chapter quota, and the actual explicit content is fairly brief and well-written. Even the romantic content is somewhat limited in scope - but what do you expect? They're being held for ransom on a pirate ship, and they're naval officers - romance is highly secondary to the more important things of ripping yarns, like survival and escape.

You have a choice with this book - read it for the historical adventure, read it for the romance, or read it for both. None of those options is disappointing. The characterizations are solid, the plot is entertaining, the history and the seamanship are accurate. Come to think of it, isn't that why we read Horatio Hornblower?

Published by Cheyenne Publishing, available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com among others; more information at www.lee-rowan.net. Available in paperback and as an e-book.

Graphic courtesy of lee-rowan.net