The adventures of Richard Cutler, scion of a prosperous New England family and veteran of the Continental navy -- continue in For Love of Country, the second volume in the series by William C. Hammond. Several years have passed since Richard fought a war against the British and won for himself an English bride; he is now settled and happy in his Massachusetts home, with two sons and a third child on the way.

But then word is received that one of the family's merchant ships -- aboard which Richard's younger brother Caleb serves as a foretopman -- has been captured by Algerian pirates, and its crew is being held for ransom. With the fledgling United States government still sorting itself out, it falls to the Cutler family to raise the funds and sail to the Barbary Coast to bargain for their freedom.

It doesn't prove all that simple, however, and Richard must tread carefully not to make matters worse. Frustrated, he sails for France to consult with American diplomats there -- harried by Algerian corsairs along his way -- only to find himself caught up in the violence of the burgeoning French Revolution. There, too, he finds a former lover, who has since married a French nobleman and had two daughters, in peril from revolutionaries eager to topple any member of the nobility they can find.

A lot happens in the pages of For Love of Country, and not all plot lines will be resolved by the end. (Fortunately, I have the next book in the series already on my nightstand and ready to go.)

As in the previous novel, the protagonist interacts with a number of historical figures, among them Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, John Paul Jones, Horatio Nelson, the Marquis de Lafayette and bin Osman, the brutal dey of Algiers.

Hammond, himself a Massachusetts man, has obviously done meticulous research into global politics at the time this novel -- which spans 1786 to 1789 -- is set. While his focus might be the sea, he gives readers insight into the difficulties the young U.S. government faced on the world stage where, among others, the British were making international trade quite difficult. He also delves deeply into the doings of key historical figures at the time, and Cutler's interactions with them feel realistic. (One caveat: a working knowledge of French would be helpful, since some conversations are not translated for readers, like me, who don't know the language.)

I hope the next book picks up the action where For Love left off. Most of the books I've read from this era are set after the French Revolution has occurred or, more often, after Napoleon Bonaparte has risen to power. Hammond gives his readers a fascinating glimpse of the Revolution as it unfolds from its early days, and I hope circumstances bring Cutler back to France quickly.

An unfortunate printing accident left a vertical white stripe down the middle of every even-numbered page. Every single one. The stripe obscures two letters on every line of text, which makes reading the book just a little bit tedious; the eye tries to fill in the gaps, but sometimes you have to stop to figure out the missing text. Let's hope they caught the error before too many copies were printed.