THE MONTEVIDEO BRIEF

The third title in J. H. Gelernter's Captain Grey series: A secret treaty will determine whether England can survive against Napoleon, and Captain Grey races across the Atlantic to intercept a treasure fleet.

Vienna, June 1804. At the glittering debut of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony, a Spanish diplomat meets with Captain Thomas Grey, an agent of His Majesty's Secret Service. In exchange for a gigantic bribe, the Spaniard discloses the holy grail of Spanish secrets - the shocking terms of its "San Ildefonso" treaty with France. Spain's neutrality in Napoleon's war on Britain has been a charade to keep the Royal Navy from threatening what will be the last great treasure-armada from the mines of South America. Four Spanish frigates are to depart Montevideo, capital of Uruguay, carrying 2,000 tons of gold; once the treasure has arrived in Madrid, Spain will declare war on Britain, allying with France to divide the British Empire between them. Britain's only hope is to make sure the shipment never reaches Madrid - a blow from which the Spanish Empire would never recover. The responsibility of delivering that blow falls to Grey whose race to South America, to discover when-and-where the armada will cross the Atlantic, drops him directly into America's war on the pirates of the Caribbean. J. H. Gelernter lives in Connecticut. He is the author of the Thomas Grey novels, Hold Fast and Captain Grey's Gambit.