PIRATES OF THE LEVANT

For this thinking person’s swashbuckler full of poetry and rich prose, there’s no better narrator than Michael Kramer. In dark, rugged tones hinting of Moorish vessels, flashing swords, and plunder, Kramer delivers the florid phrases that tell the tale of soldier of fortune Diego Alatriste. In Alatriste’s sixth adventure, he is aboard the Spanish galley MULATA and is dedicated to making mincemeat of the REAL pirates in order to keep the Mediterranean’s commercial lanes open for Spain. Kramer’s somber narration gives way to spirited exchanges between Alatriste and his foster son, Íñigo, then goes back to solemn accounts of a sailor’s brutal life in the early seventeenth century. Perez-Reverte’s novel is historically accurate—unflinching in its detail of bloody battle sequences and squalid living conditions. Kramer makes listening compelling. S.J.H. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: JANUARY 2011]