The Inshore Squadron: Unabridged [Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Bolitho is promoted to Rear Admiral and given command of a squadron assigned to the Baltic, where the Tsar of Russia is trying to create an alliance with the scandinavians, and simultaneously make an alliance with Napoleon. Bolitho meets a relative of his late wife, who bears a close resembland to her, and loses his heart to her.

This is another great Kent novel, set in 1800 from the viewpoint of the British Navy. This is the 13th book out of 26 in the Bolitho series, and they are all exciting depictions of life aboard ships of His Brittanic Majesty's fleet. Like the rest of them, one gets the feeling that the period is accurately depicted, with sufficient detail and character development to make you feel that you are a witness to history.

I must admit that I am a fan of Alexander Kent (a pseudonym) and his naval fiction. He seems very knowledgeable about square riggers, their armament, and the problems inherent in naval warfare with only the wind to provide propulsion.

Do I recommend these books? Absolutely!

Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN (Ret)

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

This is an often grim story that jumps between English ports and the entry to the Baltic Sea, plots and battles, health and death, and points of view. As with the novels of Hornblower and Drinkwater, Bolitho's Baltic mission is intimately tied to Tsar Paul's potential (mes-)alliance with Napoleon in 1801, and the British attempts to prevent it. Britain was fighting the greatest threat to its existence in 800 years, struggling to keep any allies at all on the continent to face the totalitarian French juggernaut (Hitler's model). The secondary story is about Adam Pascoe, Bolitho's orphaned nephew, and his growth as an officer in the squadron through trying personal relationships and, finally, knowledge of his birth. Extraordinary coincidences threaten to repeat some of the dark episodes of earlier stories: a wound that again drives Bolitho out of his mind, Pascoe's involvement in another duel like his traitorous father's, a carriage wreck like that which killed his beloved wife, and someone providentially like her....

As a writer Kent doesn't include informative period asides so much as go for the jugular of battle or command tensions. In idle moments Bolitho indulges in reminiscence of people from earlier stories, of most meaning if you've already read them. As always, pay really close atttention to any sailing instructions (e.g., difference between wind veering and backing) if you want to visualize what's going on; at one critical point I thought two squadrons were approaching battle bow-on, when they weren't! I really missed a map of the intricate waterways at the mouth of the Baltic.