An Alan Lewrie Naval Adventure (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures) by Lambdin

As usual, Dewey Lambdin has crafted another excellent Alan Lewrie novel. I was happy to receive this book and read through it the same day, very satisfied with the story and eagerly awaiting the next installment.

Absolutely another great read with wonderful character development, steamy "rantipoling" and piractical sea action. There's hardly a two page scene that isn't memorable for the action, emotion or plot complexity. Love the series

Book just goes over past events in other books with very little new material. The author is resting on his past success He has gotten lazy. I have purchased all his books but this one will probably be the last one Carl

Lambden is his own worst enemy. The narrative sometimes gets lost due to his attempt to replicate the semi-incomprehensible accents of the working classes and ordinary seamen of the time. The book (an all of his Alan Lewrie novels) would be far more readable and effective if he would use ordinary English most of the time.

Lewrie has recovered after the dramatic events off the coast of South America and after a suitable period of recovery, he is given a new ship, the Sapphire. Disappointed at first because it is not a frigate but in fact a bigger fourth rate, Lewrie is out of his comfort zone and has to get used to his new command.

He is sent to the Mediterranean to cause havoc at which he succeeds quite admirably.

There is a refreshing sense of renewal about this volume, suggesting that Mr. Lambdin has decided that it is time that Lewrie abandoned frigates and began the climb to a more senior command. There are hints that despite his own doubts and rather negative perception of himself (Lewrie pretty much believes that he has only reached his position by luck more than anything else) he is in fact highly regarded by his officers and his crew. This is also corroborated by William Marsden, the Admiralty Secretary, who admits in a roundabout way that the Sapphire is a test of Lewrie’s command ability due to past events; this leads one to think that if Lewrie succeeds with his new ship then further opportunities may open for him. Of course, conversely, if he fails…….

The methods that Lewrie uses to gain the respect of his crew, train his officers, irritate the French and even more amazingly, co-operate with the army in an Age when the two services had almost nothing to do with each other, makes for a very entertaining read and a great addition to this series.

I am already getting very fond of the Sapphire and very much looking forward to the next in the series.