Type of bind: Paperback
EAN num: 9780099497745
ISBN number: 0099497743
Label: Arrow
Manufacturer: Arrow
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: December 19, 2006
Publishing house: Arrow
Release Date: December 19, 2006
Sale Popularity Level: 420443
Studio: Arrow
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
It is December 1815 and Adam Bolitho's orders are unequivocal. As captain of His Majesty's frigate Unrivalled of forty-six guns, he is required to 'repair in the very first instance to Freetown, Sierra Leone, and reasonable assist the senior officer of the patrolling squadron'. But all efforts of the British anti-slavery patrols to curb a flourishing trade in human life are hampered by unsuitable ships, and the indifference of a government more concerned with old enemies made distrustful allies, and the continuing belligerence of the Dey of Algiers, which threatens to ignite a full-scale war.
For Adam, also, there is no peace. Lost in grief and loneliness, his uncle's death still unavenged, he is uncertain of all but his identity as a man of war. The sea is his element, the ship his only home, and a reckless, perhaps doomed attack on an impregnable stronghold his only hope of settling the bitterest of debts.
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Rated by buyers 
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Douglas Reeman under the pen name Alexander Kent has been writing Bolitho novels since the 1970s. I remember reading Sloop of War and liking the speed of the sloop plus its 16 18 pounders and two forward 24 pounders making it an 18 gun ship. There is a Science fiction story where a human encounters a Computer civilization and the Computer demands millions of books to read and then the Human promises to fill the order and runs away. I have been trying to fill that order ever since by encouraging good writers like Alexander Kent. Adam Bolitho used to be called Adam Pascoe in the series at one time and was the Favorite relative of Richard Bolitho, described as being like a son to Richard. It is difficult to believe that the Admiral Richard Bolitho was written out of the series. Tackling the African slave trade difficulties as Captain of a Frigate makes the Captain Adam Bolitho character worth checking out in this Suspenseful novel
Rated by buyers 
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Since Peace has broken out following the final defeat of Napoleon, the British Navy is on short rations. Nevertheless, Capt. Adam Bolitho is somehow kept on to continue his seaborne adventures begun in the previous volume, #24 Second to None. Before confronting the Dey again, he is assigned to the anti-slave patrols off Africa, and also encounters serious trouble while sailing as a courier for the Admiralty.
This is the second novel in this Napleonic Wars series to focus exclusively on Adam Bolitho, Adm. Richard's nephew. Adam is not a genius of tactics or leadership like his mentor. Actually, although Richard is gone, Adam and the other characters spend quite a bit fondly moping about him while they go sailing back and forth. Author Kent waxes nostalgic and layers this novel with extended sentimentality about Richard, We Happy Few, Catherine, Herrick, etc. etc. Naval action is relatively perfunctory relative either to the early books or the sentimental involvements here of Adam with his crew of faithfuls, and with another beautiful but troubled damsel. In other words, this book is strictly for people who've read all the others and are willing to reminisce about their leading characters, many of whom make cameo appearances here.
Rated by buyers 
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Alexander Kent is now depicting the Royal Navy without a defined enemy and the impact this is having on it. Without a belligerent France across the Channel, the strength of the navy is slashed to the bone and beyond.
Adam Bolitho is still in command of the frigate Unrivalled only now is dealing with ships packed to overflowing with Africans en-route to slavery and with North African pirates. Neither of these opponents are giving much concern to politicians and merchant bankers of Great Britain, except in so far as they are accumulating wealth from the transport and auction of slaves. The man in the street knows little about this and cares less.
It is this apathy of the public that the Royal Navy in general and Adam in particular must battle. It might be easy to die for your country when the enemy is French or Spanish, but when it is a slave runner, the concept becomes a little vague. Fighting in the Bay of Biscay is one thing, fighting in the Bight of Benin is something else entirely.
Kent creates the atmosphere of these times with great care. You are faced with seamen, tossed onto the beach without thought, after being through tremendous hardship and danger. You are also faced with the families that they had left behind and now must support in some form or fashion. Also, there is the aristocracy, both of society and the Royal Navy that must be maintained. These features never go away. One would think that the needs of the Naval aristocracy would decrease as the Navy shrinks - far from it!
Adam Bolitho is a complex man and as I learn more about him, I can see this. From a bastard orphan to a successful naval officer, we have seem him evolve. Yet he is still dogged by his origins - he has never forgotten the days as a youngster fending for himself as his mother became unable to care and support him.
This is a book without the flash and thunder of a fleet action. Now it is a series of actions between schooners and sloops and oared launches. Adam's ship is too big and powerful to be of decisive value except as a resevoir from which to draw men to man the smaller ships. It is this type of action that is honing the skills of the men of Unrivalled and preparing them for the ultimate combat with African pirates.
Throughout the book, we are reintroduced to charecters of the past, Thomas Herrick, Daniel Yovel, Graeme Bethune and others. We see an appearance by Richard's daughter Elizabeth as she starts to connect to Adam for after all, in spite of birth situation, he is her closest surviving relative and vice versa.
This book is a continuation of the Bolitho family saga. It continues to add to what we know of the family, even if it is only in small details, such as the name of Adam's mother. I found it thoroughly enjoyable and a fine addition to my library. I would recommend it to anyone who has read even a few of the preceeding books on the Bolitho family.
Rated by buyers 
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Too many story lines and the ships jumping from the Med to Engalnd to Africa to the Med with people jumping in and out and and a new woman thrown in. Can't anyone in this series fall in love over a period greater than one day? THe action is limited and the book doesn't stand alone. Unless you have rtead the very first 24, don't start here
Rated by buyers -
This novel is tagged as a Richard Bolitho novel. It's not. Mr. Kent chose to kill Richard Bolitho off two novels ago and left us with his whining nephew, Adam, who annoyed me from the very beginning. I'd been reading of Richard's many and varied adventures for 25 years and Mr. Kent kills him off in one paragraph!? How did faithful, loyal Allday feel? Who knows? Mr. Kent chose to totally disregard his friendship with Richard. I was so disgusted I donated the book to my local library. Adam is a whiner. The women in Kent's latest novels have the men wrapped around their little fingers. Geez! Where's the fabulous comraderie of the earlier novels, the triumphant battles and the agony of defeat? Also, he killed off most of the wonderful characters I so enjoyed (thank goodness dear Allday was spared, the *only* character left I can empathize with). So no. I will not read another Adam novel.
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