Richard Bolitho's new command is the Tempest, a 36-gun frigate, built in India of teak. a fifth class like his last command. But teak is a very heavy, dense wood; much heavier than the English oak usually used in the construction of ships of the Royal Navy, and therefor less maneuverable--but exceptionally strong.

The Tempest is picked up in the story entering the harbor at Sydney, the main port of the prison colony of Botany Bay (now known as Australia.)

The Commodore to whom he reports is an old friend with whom he served when they were both lieutenants. But another old acquaintance was also arriving soon from England: the government advisor, James Raymond and his wife Viola, with whom Bolitho had fallen in love on the last occasion of their company, five years previously.

The story continues through attacks by the pirate Mathias Tuke, broadsides, shore parties, a long sea episode in an open boat, hostile savages, and the loss of many good friends and crew members in battler and from fever, and the near loss of Bolito's own life.

This is a fine novel, as is typical of Alexander Kent, and the seventh in the Bolitho series. I have ordered the next three in the series, so taken by the stories am I.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN(Ret)

author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenance
and other books