Alan Lewrie Books in Order: How to read Dewey Lambdin’s series?

Coming from Dewey Lambdin, Alan Lewrie is the fictional hero of a naval adventure series of novels published from 1989 to 2019. The series was not supposed to stop after 25 novels, but the death of Dewey Lambdin in 2021 changed that (no news for now about his 26th unfinished book). Alan Lewrie is the captain of his own ship, an educated Londoner who likes gambling, drinking, and women. He participates in several of the major naval and land battles of the American Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Era.

How to read the Alan Lewrie Series in Order?

Every entry in the Alan Lewrie book series works as a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.

1. The King’s Coat – 1780: Seventeen-year-old Alan Lewrie is a brash, rebellious young libertine. So much so that his callous father believes a bit of navy discipline will turn the boy around. Fresh aboard the tall-masted Ariadne, Midshipman Lewrie heads for the war-torn Americas, finding–rather unexpectedly–that he is a born sailor, equally at home with the randy pleasures of the port and the raging battles on the high seas. But in a hail of cannonballs comes a bawdy surprise…
2. The French Admiral – After being shipped off to the navy, Alan Lewrie has found his sea legs. Although a stark contrast to the social whirl of London, his rise in status to naval officer rather suits him. When, alongside the crew of the Desperate, he finds himself entangled in the siege of Yorktown, he is forced to fight for his life. But rescuing a loyalist family, along with their attractive daughter Caroline, gets Lewrie in even hotter water…
3. The King’s Commission – Midshipman Alan Lewrie passes the examination for Lieutenancy and finds himself commissioned first officer of the brig o’war Shrike. There’s time for some dalliance with the fair sex, and then Lieutenant Lewrie is off to patrol the North American coast and attempt to bring the Muskogees and Seminoles onto the British side against the American rebels. Then back to the Caribbean, to sail beside Captain Horatio Nelson in the Battle for Turks Island.
4. The King’s Privateer – 1783: Back from war in the Americas, young navy veteran Alan Lewrie finds London pure pleasure. Then, at Plymouth he boards the trading ship Telesto to find out why merchantmen are disappearing in the East Indies. Between the pungent shores of Calcutta and teeming Canton, Lewrie-reunited with his scoundrel father-discovers a young French captain, backed by an armada of Mindanaon pirates, on a plundering rampage. While treaties tie the navy’s hands, a King’s privateer is free to plunge into the fire and blood of a dirty little war on the high South China Sea.

5. The Gun Ketch – It’s 1786 and Alan Lewrie has his own ship at last, the Alacrity. Small but deadly, the Alacrity prowls the waters of the Caribbean, protecting British merchants from pirates. A surprising turn of events makes an honest man of the young rake. But not too honest; there’s still time for a few well-planned conquests on land before taking on Calico Jack Finney, the boldest pirate in the Caribbean… But will he make it back?
6. H.M.S. Cockerel – Yearning for the high seas, Alan Lewrie plods through his oppressive life as a gentleman farmer and family man. The year is 1793 and after four years spent ashore, Lewrie is gratified when revolutionary France threatens war and the Royal Navy beckons. All does not go smoothly, as he soon finds himself aboard the HMS Cockerel dealing with a difficult captain and disgruntled crew. Once in the Mediterranean, he throws caution to the wind and becomes involved with the bewitching Lady Emma Hamilton. The war escalates and he finds himself at the Battle of Toulon where he meets a dashing young Napoleon Bonaparte.
7. A King’s Commander – Alan Lewrie is now commander of HMS Jester, an 18-gun sloop. Lewrie sails into Corsica only to receive astonishing orders: he must lure his archenemy, French commander Guillaume Choundas, into battle and personally strike the malevolent spymaster dead. With Horatio Nelson as his squadron commander on one hand and a luscious courtesan who spies for the French on the other, Lewrie must pull out all the stops if he’s going to live up to his own reputation and bring glory to the British Royal Navy.
8. Jester’s Fortune – Fresh from his successes along the French coast, Commander Alan Lewrie is dispatched to the Adriatic to patrol the shores of Italy and intercept any French ships trying to reinforce Napoleon’s armies. The four-ship squadron the HMS Jester has joined emerges victorious from the first few skirmishes, but it soon becomes evident, even to Lewrie, that the British forces need reinforcements. The aid they receive, however, might be the most terrifying aspect of the war yet… and a lethal mistake.

9. King’s Captain – Alan Lewrie is promoted for his quick action in the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, but before he’s even had a chance to settle into his new role, a mutiny rages through the fleet, and the sudden reappearance of an old enemy has Lewrie fighting not just for his command, but for his life.
10. Sea of Grey – This time, it’s off to a failing British intervention on the ultra-rich French colony of Saint Domingue, wracked by an utterly cruel and bloodthirsty slave rebellion led by Toussaint L’Ouverture, the future father of Haitian independence. Beset and distracted though he might be, it will take all of Alan Lewrie’s pluck, daring, skill, and his usual tongue-in-cheek deviousness, to navigate all the perils in a sea of grey.
11. Havoc’s Sword – It’s 1798, and Alan Lewrie and his crew of the Proteus frigate have their work cut out for them. First, he has rashly vowed to uphold a friend’s honor in a duel to the death. Second, he faces the horridly unwelcome arrival of HM Government’s Foreign Office agents (out to use him as their cat’s-paw in impossibly vaunting schemes against the French). And last, he must engineer the showdown with his arch-foe and nemesis, the hideous ogre of the French Revolution’s Terror, that clever fiend Guillaume Choundas!
12. The Captain’s Vengeance – A rich French prize ship he’d left at anchor at Dominica has gone missing, along with six of his sailors. What starts as a straightforward search for it, and them, from Hispaniola to Barbados, far down the Antilles, leads Alan Lewrie to a gruesome discovery on the Dry Tortugas and to a vile cabal of the most pitiless and depraved pirates ever to sail under the “Jolly Roger” . . . and the suspicion that one of his trusted hands just may be the worst of them all!

13. A King’s Trade – After a bout of Yellow Fever decimated the crew of Alan Lewrie’s HMS Proteus in 1797, it had seemed like a knacky idea to abscond with a dozen slaves from a coastal Jamaican plantation to help man his frigate, a grand jape on their purse-proud master and a righteous act, to boot. But now . . . two years later, the embittered Beauman clan at last suspects Lewrie of the deed. Slave-stealing is a hanging offense, and suddenly Alan Lewrie’s neck is at risk of a fatal stretching!
14. Troubled Waters – Spring of 1800, and Captain Alan Lewrie, fresh from victory in the South Atlantic, is reckoned a hero on a par with Nelson in all the papers. Back in England, he’s fitting out his new frigate, HMS Savage, the fruits of that victory, the largest and best-armed frigate he’s ever commanded. But you can’t leave Lewrie ashore too long without trouble arising.
15. The Baltic Gambit – January 1801, and Captain Alan Lewrie, RN, known as “St. Alan the Liberator” for freeing (stealing!) a dozen black slaves on Jamaica to man his frigate years before, is at last being brought to trial for it, with his life on the line. At the same time, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Prussia are forming a League of Armed Neutrality, to Napoleon Bonaparte’s delight, to deny Great Britain their vital exports, even if it means war. England will need all her experienced sea dogs, but … even Alan Lewrie?
16. King, Ship, and Sword – December 1801. The Peace of Amiens end the long war with Napoleon Bonaparte’s France, but Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy, is appalled by its consequences. First, he’s been in the Navy since 1780 (most unwillingly, most of the time!) and at sea for the better part of nine years, since 1793, so what is a dashing and successful frigate captain to do with himself, if he’s ashore on half-pay, and if so, for how long?

17. The Invasion Year – For a fellow like Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy, who despises the French worse than the Devil hates Holy Water, it’s hellish-hard to gain a reputation for saving them, not once but twice, when the French refugees from Haiti surrender to England rather than the vengeful ex-slave armies in November of 1803!
18. Reefs and Shoals – Pity poor Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy! He’s been wind-muzzled for weeks in Portsmouth, snugly tucked into a warm shore bed with lovely, and loving, Lydia Stangbourne, a Viscount’s daughter, and beginning to enjoy indulging his idle streak, when Admiralty tears Lewrie away and order him to the Bahamas, into the teeth of ferocious winter storms. It’s enough to make a rakehell such as he weep and kick furniture!
19. Hostile Shores – In 1805, with news of Admiral Nelson’s death fresh on his mind, Captain Lewrie’s HMS Reliant joins up in the voyage that will culminate in the Battle of Cape Town, in which the British wrested control of South Africa from the Dutch. In the wake of that victory, Lewrie heads west to South America, where Britain’s attacks on Buenos Aires and other Spanish colonies have not been faring as well. But the worst is yet to come, and soon Lewrie will be facing a battle at sea that will put his naval career and life at risk.
20. The King’s Marauder – The year 1807 starts out badly for Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy. In The King’s Marauder, his frigate HMS Reliant has a new captain, he’s living at his father’s estate at Anglesgreen, among spiteful neighbors and family, and he’s recovering from a wound suffered in the South Atlantic. At last, there’s a bright spot. When fit, Admiralty awards him a new commission; not a frigate but a clumsy, slow two-decker Fourth Rate 50. Are his frigate days over for good?

21. Kings and Emperors – Captain Alan Lewrie is still in Gibraltar, his schemes for raids along the coast of southern Spain shot to a halt. He is reduced to commanding a clutch of harbor defense gunboats in the bay while his ship, HMS Sapphire, slowly grounds herself on a reef of beef bones! Until Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of peaceful Portugal and his so-called collaborative march into Spain change everything, freeing Sapphire to roam against the King’s enemies once more!
22. A Hard, Cruel Shore – The year 1809 starts out badly for Captain Alan Lewrie and his ship, HMS Sapphire. They’ve extracted the sick, cold survivors of Sir John Moore’s army from disaster at Corunna, got hit by lightning while escorting the army to England, and suffered a shattered mainmast which may end Lewrie’s active commission if a replacement can’t be found or fashioned soon. Admiralty needs troopships, not slow, old Fourth Rate two-deckers, so Lewrie must beg, borrow, steal, and gild the facts most glibly if he wishes to keep her and her skilled crew together.
23. A Fine Retribution – Captain Alan Lewrie and his small squadron defeat four French frigates off northern Spain, winning honor, glory, and renown. So, why is such a successful captain suddenly without a ship, or another active commission? Why do rumors swirl that jealous foes’ powerful patrons are blighting his career?
24. An Onshore Storm – Three mismatched troop transports, lots of 29-foot barges, and an under-strength regiment of foot–a waste of Royal Navy money, a doomed experiment, or a new way to bedevil Napoleon’s army in Italy? Either way, it’s Capt. Sir Alan Lewrie’s idea, and it seems to be working, with successful raids all along the coast of Calabria.

25. Much Ado about Lewrie – It’s late Autumn, and being ashore is heavenly, after a time. Lewrie spends time with his wife Jessica, helps his son Hugh find a new ship, and happily marries off Charlotte. Life onshore is quiet until Lewrie finds himself once again in the headlines of the city papers after discovering a dognapping gang and uncovering stolen Bisquits and Rembrants. The headlines should be positive, but soon the tides turn against Lewrie once again. There’s never a dull moment for Lewrie.

If you like the Alan Lewrie reading order, you may also want to see our Hornblower reading order by the same author, or our guide to the Aubrey & Maturin series. Don’t hesitate to follow us on Twitter or Facebook to discover more book series.