Halfhyde at the Bight of Benin (The Halfhyde Adventures, No. 1)

It's the 1890s and Royal Navy Lieutenant St Vincent Halfhyde finds himself out of favor with the Navy and on half-pay ashore when he is summoned to the Admiralty. His mission: to sail to the Bight of Benin in West Africa and spy on the not-so-secret Russian presence there. As a Russian speaker who is familiar with Benin, Halfhyde is confident he's the man for the job--until he runs into Admiral Prince Gorsinski, cousin of the Czar and Halfhyde's former jailer.