With All Despatch: Amazon.ca: Alexander Kent: Books

Product Description

From Library Journal

These are the four most recent titles in Kent's ongoing adventures of 18th-century fighting British sailor Richard Bolitho. Good fun for fans of nautical fiction.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

‘One of our foremost writers of naval fiction’ -- Sunday Times

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews

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4.0 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Smugglers' Cove, Jan 15 2004

By

Joseph H Pierre "Joe Pierre" (Salem, OR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: With All Despatch: The Richard Bolitho Novels (Paperback)

Two years after the American Revolution, and the British Navy is still licking its wounds. Bolitho, after finally recovering from a serious illness encountered in the South Seas, haunts the Admiralty, looking for a new command, his beloved frigate Tempest laid up for repairs.

The Admiralty awards his past heroism with a squadron of three small topsail cutters, and directs him to assist the revenue service against the often brutal smugglers who are using the Kentish coast, apparently with assistance from powerful patrons.

This is another story of intrigue, violence, and treachery as Bolitho--saddled again with incompetent superiors--struggles to fulfill his duty.

Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN(Ret)

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

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4.0 out of 5 stars A troubled Bolitho, Jan 24 2002

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tertius3 (MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: With All Despatch: The Richard Bolitho Novels (Paperback)

Bolitho is feeling distraught. It is peacetime 1791 and he's on the shore. He's recovering from fever. His romance in the South Seas has ended. Of Viola he has only a gold watch. France is under the Terror. Then Bolitho gets his first multi-ship command, a flotilla of topsail cutters with the newly installed Smashers (nasty short-range carronades), but hardly the frigate he deserved. He's in charge of the hated press gangs at the Nore, site of a later fleet mutiny. His loyal coxs'n Allday deserts him! And he suspects his superior and a captain or two of collusion with English smugglers, who are taking heinous advantage of refugee French women. Life is ugly all around, and dominates the dark mood of this novel. Bolitho races about on many filthy errands, in foul seas, and against big odds. That, at least, is nothing new.

Deja vu: the story line is reminiscent of "Midshipman Bolitho," once again chasing smugglers. Again the smugglers have a deadly intelligence system and protection from a mystery authority. Nominally in command of his destiny, Bolitho encounters a master politician who sends him on highly dangerous secret missions into Holland. Curiously, for all Bolitho's empathy and respect for his crews, he never seems to invite his officers to dinner. There's little in this series of the sumptuous larders most captains supplied.

Kent includes nice bonus appendices, one on the specialist warrant officers, the other on the origins of some naval customs. But nary a word on the possible historicity of the events told here.

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4.0 out of 5 stars Stand by the guns! Loosen the t'gallant and jib!, Dec 12 2001

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Ironmike (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: With All Despatch: The Richard Bolitho Novels (Paperback)

Although not one of the best in the series, this novel captures the grim life at sea and the struggle against nature. In this book, brutal smugglers ply the English Channel between Holland, France and England. The central characters are well written and alive with problems, dialog and several seem destined to re-appear in future Bolitho novels. However, Mr. Kent seemed to have Bolitho dwell in his past too many times. A dark, brooding side of the naval hero seems to fill many pages, but it does make Sir Richard that much more of a fleshed out character. He does feel for his dead friends, former ships and in some cases, former enemies. That aside, the tale moves along like a nimble sixth-rater with all sheets unfurled in a southern wind. The action is swift and brutal as Bolitho gives battle to the smugglers and their allies. Stormy weather, plenty of thunderous cannon fire, smashed bulkheads, parted ratlines and terrified crewmen. The author once again details the sea as an angry foe without mercy. The battle at the end of the book between a couple of corvettes and three cutters is suberb Kent writting. A welcome addition to the collection none the less. Well worth reading and blends seamlessly into the very next novel. An excellent series that has re-defined nautical fiction.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Bolitho Battles North Sea Smugglers
With All Despatch is chronologically the last of Kent's pre-Napoleonic Wars Bolitho novels. It is also the most recently written depicting that era. Read more

Published on Jan 8 2001 by Bill Mac

3.0 out of 5 stars disappointing
Of the first 8 Bolitho books, this is my least favorite. The story is permeated with sadness, hurt, bitterness, and amoral villains. Read more

Published on July 9 2000