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The Strode Venturer
THE STRODE VENTURER, ploughing distant seas, bridges two very different worlds--the island paradise of Addu Atoll and the commercial world of London.
Everything is very much business as usual, but at Strode House a coterie of directors plots against the family. Nowhere is disaster closer than in the Maldives, where the Adduans, an isolated seafaring people, have literally bet their future on the company.
Peter Strode, wanderer, the odd man out in a family interested only in power and money, makes the cause of the Adduans his own. Volatile, impulsive, full of driving enthusiasm, he sets out to save these people and restore his father's company. Only death can deflect him from his purpose.
310 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1960
About the author
Hammond Innes
106 books107 followersRalph Hammond Innes was an English novelist who wrote over 30 novels, as well as children's and travel books.He was awarded a C.B.E. (Commander, Order of the British Empire) in 1978. The World Mystery Convention honoured Innes with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bouchercon XXIV awards in Omaha, Nebraska, Oct, 1993.
Innes was born in Horsham, Sussex, and educated at the Cranbrook School in Kent. He left in 1931 to work as a journalist, initially with the Financial Times (at the time called the Financial News). The Doppelganger, his first novel, was published in 1937. In WWII he served in the Royal Artillery, eventually rising to the rank of Major. During the war, a number of his books were published, including Wreckers Must Breathe (1940), The Trojan Horse (1941) and Attack Alarm (1941); the last of which was based on his experiences as an anti-aircraft gunner during the Battle of Britain at RAF Kenley. After being discharged in 1946, he worked full-time as a writer, achieving a number of early successes.
His novels are notable for a fine attention to accurate detail in descriptions of places, such as in Air Bridge (1951), set partially at RAF Gatow, RAF Membury after its closure and RAF Wunstorf during the Berlin Airlift.
Innes went on to produce books in a regular sequence, with six months of travel and research followed by six months of writing. Many of his works featured events at sea. His output decreased in the 1960s, but was still substantial. He became interested in ecological themes. He continued writing until just before his death. His last novel was Delta Connection (1996).
Unusually for the thriller genre, Innes' protagonists were often not "heroes" in the typical sense, but ordinary men suddenly thrust into extreme situations by circumstance. Often, this involved being placed in a hostile environment (the Arctic, the open sea, deserts), or unwittingly becoming involved in a larger conflict or conspiracy. The protagonist generally is forced to rely on his own wits and making best use of limited resources, rather than the weapons and gadgetry commonly used by thriller writers.
Four of his early novels were made into films: Snowbound (1948)from The Lonely Skier (1947), Hell Below Zero (1954) from The White South (1949), Campbell's Kingdom (1957), and The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). His 1973 novel Golden Soak was adapted into a six-part television series in 1979.
Innes was born in Horsham, Sussex, and educated at the Cranbrook School in Kent. He left in 1931 to work as a journalist, initially with the Financial Times (at the time called the Financial News). The Doppelganger, his first novel, was published in 1937. In WWII he served in the Royal Artillery, eventually rising to the rank of Major. During the war, a number of his books were published, including Wreckers Must Breathe (1940), The Trojan Horse (1941) and Attack Alarm (1941); the last of which was based on his experiences as an anti-aircraft gunner during the Battle of Britain at RAF Kenley. After being discharged in 1946, he worked full-time as a writer, achieving a number of early successes.
His novels are notable for a fine attention to accurate detail in descriptions of places, such as in Air Bridge (1951), set partially at RAF Gatow, RAF Membury after its closure and RAF Wunstorf during the Berlin Airlift.
Innes went on to produce books in a regular sequence, with six months of travel and research followed by six months of writing. Many of his works featured events at sea. His output decreased in the 1960s, but was still substantial. He became interested in ecological themes. He continued writing until just before his death. His last novel was Delta Connection (1996).
Unusually for the thriller genre, Innes' protagonists were often not "heroes" in the typical sense, but ordinary men suddenly thrust into extreme situations by circumstance. Often, this involved being placed in a hostile environment (the Arctic, the open sea, deserts), or unwittingly becoming involved in a larger conflict or conspiracy. The protagonist generally is forced to rely on his own wits and making best use of limited resources, rather than the weapons and gadgetry commonly used by thriller writers.
Four of his early novels were made into films: Snowbound (1948)from The Lonely Skier (1947), Hell Below Zero (1954) from The White South (1949), Campbell's Kingdom (1957), and The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). His 1973 novel Golden Soak was adapted into a six-part television series in 1979.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
March 12, 2020
This was first published during 1965 and centres around a fictitious island that has appeared in the Indian Ocean. The activity involves the RAF station in Addu Atoll part of the Maldive Islands, I was particularly interested as I was stationed there in 1965/67, and some of the Adduans trying to set up a peoples republic. The Strode family are at loggerheads with the younger son Peter who has been travelling the world and a recent arrival Commander Bailey, the son of a man broken by the Henry Strode in a take over of a shipping line. Big finance and board room shenanigans coupled with the great atmosphere of this remote area. All-round Boy's Own adventure story. Perhaps not as dark as stories of today, nevertheless a good read.
October 20, 2019
Hammond Innes published The Strode Venturer about the time I was reading Nordhoff and Hall's Bounty Trilogy. For some time thereafter, I would reread Nordhoff and Hall's novels on the Bounty every year (when I read them again a couple of years ago, I realized how much went past me as a youngster and how intricate and impressive the trilogy really was). I mention Nordhoff and Hall because The Strode Venturer is in the same tradition. Where Nordhoff and Hall, writing in the years after World War I, picked up on Melville's and Stevenson's adventures in isolated and unexplored oceans, Innes set his tale in the early 1960s and told of a seaman fighting against corrupt authority and tradition, while battling the most basic elements of nature, all in order not only just to survive but to triumph.
That is what happens in this story set mainly in the Indian Ocean, centered around the discovery and claim of a newly born volcanic island. The island is not only a redemption for Geoffrey Bailey, a retired naval commander whose life is in tatters, but for the people of Addu Atoll, who see in the island a means of regaining independence and the preservation of their traditional way of life.
Like Melville and Nordhoff and Hall, Innes' novels have a classic quality to them. Their stories only seem stronger and more appealing with the passage of time. Why? Because while Innes admits the presence of the modern world into his novels, the essence of them is about isolating men (and sometimes women) from the security of modernity and testing them against the raw forces of nature. Sometimes, it is the desert. More often, it is the sea. He belongs to a tradition of fiction stretching back to writers obsessed with the South Seas. Even further, you can see the influence of Defoe and Robinson Crusoe and, in another context, Moll Flanders. For unlike characters in other of Innes' novels I have read, the author seems to inhabit Bailey. Bailey, indeed, stands mostly by himself, here. Other characters only sweep into his narrative to escape once more like a visiting comet. Even, Ida, the sister of Peter Strode, who launches Bailey on his quest, appears only at the margins. And this while she is falling in love with Bailey.
That is what happens in this story set mainly in the Indian Ocean, centered around the discovery and claim of a newly born volcanic island. The island is not only a redemption for Geoffrey Bailey, a retired naval commander whose life is in tatters, but for the people of Addu Atoll, who see in the island a means of regaining independence and the preservation of their traditional way of life.
Like Melville and Nordhoff and Hall, Innes' novels have a classic quality to them. Their stories only seem stronger and more appealing with the passage of time. Why? Because while Innes admits the presence of the modern world into his novels, the essence of them is about isolating men (and sometimes women) from the security of modernity and testing them against the raw forces of nature. Sometimes, it is the desert. More often, it is the sea. He belongs to a tradition of fiction stretching back to writers obsessed with the South Seas. Even further, you can see the influence of Defoe and Robinson Crusoe and, in another context, Moll Flanders. For unlike characters in other of Innes' novels I have read, the author seems to inhabit Bailey. Bailey, indeed, stands mostly by himself, here. Other characters only sweep into his narrative to escape once more like a visiting comet. Even, Ida, the sister of Peter Strode, who launches Bailey on his quest, appears only at the margins. And this while she is falling in love with Bailey.
August 15, 2020
I have only just started reading Hammond Innes but surely he must have been one of the best thriller writers of the past century? He seems to be on a far higher level than Buchan, Fleming, Wilbur Smith, etc, much closer to Eric Ambler or Grahame Greene in terms of quality prose and believable characters. And he seems always to be on the side of the underdog. At least, this is what I conclude from reading this superb novel.
This is very much a "dying empire" adventure, wistful rather than gung-ho. The middle part of this novel contains the best action sequences I have ever read, with a tropical storm, a shipwreck, a volcanic upthrust and the hero trapped in a barge that is in danger of flooding. The rest of the book contrasts two very different worlds, that of bubbling seabeds, drunken captains, rusty old tramp steamers and independence fighters on a remote island, with the vicious boardroom politics of a London City shipping firm.
This is very much a "dying empire" adventure, wistful rather than gung-ho. The middle part of this novel contains the best action sequences I have ever read, with a tropical storm, a shipwreck, a volcanic upthrust and the hero trapped in a barge that is in danger of flooding. The rest of the book contrasts two very different worlds, that of bubbling seabeds, drunken captains, rusty old tramp steamers and independence fighters on a remote island, with the vicious boardroom politics of a London City shipping firm.
August 10, 2021
Five stars if it hadn't been for the hasty, un-spicy wrap-up at the all too predictable happy end. But top rating for a highly original plot and a magnificent setting. Up there with The wreck of the Mary Deare.
August 19, 2025
I read this as part of an initiative to read all the unread books on my shelves. I don't know how long this has been there but it's copyright 1965 and this edition was published in 1974. It's a terrible cover and the blurb on the back told me nothing so the only way to find out what it was about was to read it.
It's an adventure story set in 1963 in the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. The book doesn't tell you this but in January 1959, the southern atolls of Addu, Huvadhu, and Fuvahmulah declared independence from the central Maldivian government.
The British had a military base on Gan (in Addu Atoll) and had to tread a careful path. They leased Gan from the Maldivian government and employed many Adduans at the base.
The Maldivian government in Malé in the north approved military action to retake the breakaway territory. Over the next few years, Malé sent forces to suppress the movement, including naval actions that could be interpreted as hostile blockades or attacks on trading vessels.
In the novel, the rebels are given a fictional leader called Don Mansoor who gains the support and trust of an adventurous member of the Strode shipping family. Peter Strode plans to help them fight back against what he sees as acts of piracy, and to restore the prosperity of his ailing company, by exploiting the mineral wealth of a mysterious new island that has just appeared in the vicinity.
Like all the novels of Hammond Innes, it is very well researched. The scientific and nautical details are part fact and part fiction. You could call it a thriller but it starts very quietly with the narrator, Commander Bailey, returning to London from Singapore having quit his job in the navy to start his own business. His plans fall through and he ends up being offered a job with the Strode Company if he can help find Peter Strode, who, as the novel begins, has gone missing.
There are several moments where you are kept guessing and expect a dramatic twist. Innes often sets up these possibilities, hinting at sabotage or murder, then undercuts them with a quieter, more psychologically plausible resolution. His action sequences and descriptions of the landscape are always beautifully done but his characters are often unmemorable and blur into one another.
His main character, here the narrator, is often an Everyman, a morally respectable figure who does what any honourable man would do when faced with difficult choices. But he's also resourceful and, when his life is in danger, he fights tooth and nail to survive.
There are some domestic details. Bailey is married with two children but his marriage is not a happy one. Innes sketches in the details as the story unfolds and as Bailey travels back and forth across the globe. These are among the least convincing aspects of the story, not because they couldn't happen but because they are pushed into the background. But they help to establish Bailey as an honest and decent man trying to do the right thing in difficult circumstances.
There are also a lot of financial details as Bailey sets out the circumstances around several board meetings that take place in London and which are crucial to the plot. In places, and particularly in the first 56 pages, which are really quite dull, Innes asks his readers to trust him and stick with him through the boring bits, knowing that that he can be relied on to deliver the exciting action plot that made him one of the most successful thriller writers of his generation. And indeed, deliver it he does. Once the plot picked up, I couldn't put the book down.
It's an adventure story set in 1963 in the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. The book doesn't tell you this but in January 1959, the southern atolls of Addu, Huvadhu, and Fuvahmulah declared independence from the central Maldivian government.
The British had a military base on Gan (in Addu Atoll) and had to tread a careful path. They leased Gan from the Maldivian government and employed many Adduans at the base.
The Maldivian government in Malé in the north approved military action to retake the breakaway territory. Over the next few years, Malé sent forces to suppress the movement, including naval actions that could be interpreted as hostile blockades or attacks on trading vessels.
In the novel, the rebels are given a fictional leader called Don Mansoor who gains the support and trust of an adventurous member of the Strode shipping family. Peter Strode plans to help them fight back against what he sees as acts of piracy, and to restore the prosperity of his ailing company, by exploiting the mineral wealth of a mysterious new island that has just appeared in the vicinity.
Like all the novels of Hammond Innes, it is very well researched. The scientific and nautical details are part fact and part fiction. You could call it a thriller but it starts very quietly with the narrator, Commander Bailey, returning to London from Singapore having quit his job in the navy to start his own business. His plans fall through and he ends up being offered a job with the Strode Company if he can help find Peter Strode, who, as the novel begins, has gone missing.
There are several moments where you are kept guessing and expect a dramatic twist. Innes often sets up these possibilities, hinting at sabotage or murder, then undercuts them with a quieter, more psychologically plausible resolution. His action sequences and descriptions of the landscape are always beautifully done but his characters are often unmemorable and blur into one another.
His main character, here the narrator, is often an Everyman, a morally respectable figure who does what any honourable man would do when faced with difficult choices. But he's also resourceful and, when his life is in danger, he fights tooth and nail to survive.
There are some domestic details. Bailey is married with two children but his marriage is not a happy one. Innes sketches in the details as the story unfolds and as Bailey travels back and forth across the globe. These are among the least convincing aspects of the story, not because they couldn't happen but because they are pushed into the background. But they help to establish Bailey as an honest and decent man trying to do the right thing in difficult circumstances.
There are also a lot of financial details as Bailey sets out the circumstances around several board meetings that take place in London and which are crucial to the plot. In places, and particularly in the first 56 pages, which are really quite dull, Innes asks his readers to trust him and stick with him through the boring bits, knowing that that he can be relied on to deliver the exciting action plot that made him one of the most successful thriller writers of his generation. And indeed, deliver it he does. Once the plot picked up, I couldn't put the book down.
December 2, 2024
Great pulp fiction that’s a mixture of old fashioned nautical and London-based finance tropes. Some elements aged poorly, but a lot of the characters are written very well.
July 20, 2018
The book equivalent of watching an old black and white movie with a good bottle of red wine. The plots pretty shaky and maybe it’s not all that good but it is a mellow good time all round.
July 8, 2014
Hammond Innes writes very good adventure stories, many of them involving ships or yachts. This one is partly set in the Maldives and partly in the London financial world, and of course, it involves ships. The settings and people are well described and the accounts of sailing ships through the (then) poorly charted Indian Ocean during volcanic activity are particularly good.
I first read this book as a teenager, then read it again as my World Tour book for the Maldives. The second time, the story was as part of an omnibus edition. I enjoyed it and then went on to read the other stories, some for the second time and one which was new to me.
Historical note: The Suvadives declared independence on January 3, 1959. They capitulated, rejoining the rest of the Maldives, on September 23, 1963.
I first read this book as a teenager, then read it again as my World Tour book for the Maldives. The second time, the story was as part of an omnibus edition. I enjoyed it and then went on to read the other stories, some for the second time and one which was new to me.
Historical note: The Suvadives declared independence on January 3, 1959. They capitulated, rejoining the rest of the Maldives, on September 23, 1963.
February 15, 2017
I really tried to read the book. I had heard it gets better. However, I have WAY too many books on my To Read List to have any more patience.
I liked the main character and ached for his success. I so wanted him to find happiness and even love. However, the plot was SO slow and methodical. It gets very detailed about stocks, shares, office politics and other business whatnot. Although it was necessary for the storyline, for me, it got complicated and boring. Then the nautical aspects were also meticulously detailed.
Anyone who enjoys business politics, office machinations and maritime aka shipping history will enjoy this book immensely.
I am disappointed because the Maldives were part of my World Book Challenge. I cannot justify counting this book because I did not finish it.
I liked the main character and ached for his success. I so wanted him to find happiness and even love. However, the plot was SO slow and methodical. It gets very detailed about stocks, shares, office politics and other business whatnot. Although it was necessary for the storyline, for me, it got complicated and boring. Then the nautical aspects were also meticulously detailed.
Anyone who enjoys business politics, office machinations and maritime aka shipping history will enjoy this book immensely.
I am disappointed because the Maldives were part of my World Book Challenge. I cannot justify counting this book because I did not finish it.
June 30, 2024
3.5 stars. Wonderful writing and a good sea story. Very readable.
May 11, 2025
Hammond Innes wrote thrillers in the great British tradition, novels of adventure featuring men in diverse walks of life who become ensnared in crimes, intrigues and misadventures and have to use their wits to survive. Most of his books have a nautical theme and are set in far-flung corners of the world.
In this one, set in 1963, Geoffrey Bailey, a British naval officer stationed in Singapore, decides to leave the service on the strength of a business offer. When the deal falls through he is left without prospects and is forced to take a job with the Strode Company, a London shipping firm. The crucial backstory is that Bailey's father was also a shipowner, but his company was forcibly taken over by Strode during the Depression, making the Strode family Bailey's life-long enemies. Now the Strode sons want Bailey to do a job for them that only he can do-- find the black sheep of the Strode family, Peter Strode, who has spent his life vagabonding around Asia and the Middle East instead of perched in a comfortable London office running the firm. Bailey met Peter Strode once on a beach in Yemen and liked him; now he is tasked with finding him and bringing him into the fold. There's a financial rationale for all of this, with massive shareholdings in play as a predatory takeover firm threatens the Strode enterprise.
This complicated setup sends Bailey out into the Indian Ocean, where he runs down Peter Strode in the Maldives, a remote chain of atolls stretching south from India. Peter, it turns out, has become a fierce advocate of the islands' people, intrepid seafarers whose way of life is under threat. Volcanic activity has created a new island to the south of the chain, rich in minerals; if Strode can help his islander proteges to establish a claim to it, their future will be secured. He diverts a company freighter to the project, much to his brothers' displeasure.
What follows is a rousing tale of seamanship, skulduggery and desperate battles with the elements, a typical Innes adventure. The scene shifts back and forth between the Indian Ocean and the City of London, as Bailey advocates for Peter Strode, battling on two fronts, while dealing with complications in his personal life.
Yeah, there's a lot going on, great stuff for fans of nautical adventure and financial intrigue, with the author's usual attention to detail and keen evocation of life at sea. Treatment of the characters' personal concerns is a bit more perfunctory; you don't read an Innes novel for the sentimental insights. You read it for a vivid depiction of an active life most of us will never lead but love to experience vicariously.
In this one, set in 1963, Geoffrey Bailey, a British naval officer stationed in Singapore, decides to leave the service on the strength of a business offer. When the deal falls through he is left without prospects and is forced to take a job with the Strode Company, a London shipping firm. The crucial backstory is that Bailey's father was also a shipowner, but his company was forcibly taken over by Strode during the Depression, making the Strode family Bailey's life-long enemies. Now the Strode sons want Bailey to do a job for them that only he can do-- find the black sheep of the Strode family, Peter Strode, who has spent his life vagabonding around Asia and the Middle East instead of perched in a comfortable London office running the firm. Bailey met Peter Strode once on a beach in Yemen and liked him; now he is tasked with finding him and bringing him into the fold. There's a financial rationale for all of this, with massive shareholdings in play as a predatory takeover firm threatens the Strode enterprise.
This complicated setup sends Bailey out into the Indian Ocean, where he runs down Peter Strode in the Maldives, a remote chain of atolls stretching south from India. Peter, it turns out, has become a fierce advocate of the islands' people, intrepid seafarers whose way of life is under threat. Volcanic activity has created a new island to the south of the chain, rich in minerals; if Strode can help his islander proteges to establish a claim to it, their future will be secured. He diverts a company freighter to the project, much to his brothers' displeasure.
What follows is a rousing tale of seamanship, skulduggery and desperate battles with the elements, a typical Innes adventure. The scene shifts back and forth between the Indian Ocean and the City of London, as Bailey advocates for Peter Strode, battling on two fronts, while dealing with complications in his personal life.
Yeah, there's a lot going on, great stuff for fans of nautical adventure and financial intrigue, with the author's usual attention to detail and keen evocation of life at sea. Treatment of the characters' personal concerns is a bit more perfunctory; you don't read an Innes novel for the sentimental insights. You read it for a vivid depiction of an active life most of us will never lead but love to experience vicariously.
July 8, 2018
The characters lack depth and there is little sense of emotion associated with very emotional events - very stiff upper lip and stilted style.
September 9, 2022
3 ½ stars.
December 31, 2022
A passable old school adventure. A little staid by modern standards, and too much emphasis on boardroom shenanigans for my taste but the setting was unusual which piqued my interest.
June 29, 2026
Fragmented plot but good characters and the bits with the underwater volcano and the ship are exciting.
October 15, 2019
I was stationed on the Maldive Islands when he came to visit our island on a fact finding mission for this book. I didn't quite rate it as high as some of his other works. but I have an interest nurtured by my distant association and his ability to describe just in words the beauty and the remoteness of these islands
September 5, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in September 2000.
Naval officer Geoffrey Bailey becomes involved in the affairs of the Strode Shipping Company which ruined his father's competing line when he receives an offer for the shares left him by his mother that will enable him to live comfortably. It is only after he has resigned from the navy that he is advised that the conditions of his mother's will do not allow him to sell the shares. He has, however, received an offer from one of the Strode brothers who run the company of a job with them, but when he visits the company he discovers that this was not communicated with either of the two elder brothers actively doing so. Bailey is given a job, though, because he has seen Peter Strode relatively recently in Aden; Peter is really the black sheep of the family, and his brothers want him to be tracked down so that he can be forced to play a part in the company affairs.
Much of the action of the novel takes place in steamers (including the Strode Venturer of the title) passing to and fro across the Indian Ocean, mainly in stretches of water which are among the least frequented in the world, and partly in the Maldives. This part of the novel is based on a journey made by Innes himself, and is the product of his sympathy for the Adduans of the southern islands and their attempts to escape domination by the north. (This journey is one of those described in Sea And Islands.)
Despite being based on Innes' own journey, the Indian Ocean scenes of the novel come across as rather artificial, never gripping the imagination as much as the boardroom manoeuvrings back in London. I'm not sure that the plot hangs together - it seems to me unlikely that the discoveries made by Peter Strode will turn around the fortunes of the company, at a time of a decline in British shipping in general. This leaves a feeling at the end of the novel that it has been unconvincing, despite some excitement.
Naval officer Geoffrey Bailey becomes involved in the affairs of the Strode Shipping Company which ruined his father's competing line when he receives an offer for the shares left him by his mother that will enable him to live comfortably. It is only after he has resigned from the navy that he is advised that the conditions of his mother's will do not allow him to sell the shares. He has, however, received an offer from one of the Strode brothers who run the company of a job with them, but when he visits the company he discovers that this was not communicated with either of the two elder brothers actively doing so. Bailey is given a job, though, because he has seen Peter Strode relatively recently in Aden; Peter is really the black sheep of the family, and his brothers want him to be tracked down so that he can be forced to play a part in the company affairs.
Much of the action of the novel takes place in steamers (including the Strode Venturer of the title) passing to and fro across the Indian Ocean, mainly in stretches of water which are among the least frequented in the world, and partly in the Maldives. This part of the novel is based on a journey made by Innes himself, and is the product of his sympathy for the Adduans of the southern islands and their attempts to escape domination by the north. (This journey is one of those described in Sea And Islands.)
Despite being based on Innes' own journey, the Indian Ocean scenes of the novel come across as rather artificial, never gripping the imagination as much as the boardroom manoeuvrings back in London. I'm not sure that the plot hangs together - it seems to me unlikely that the discoveries made by Peter Strode will turn around the fortunes of the company, at a time of a decline in British shipping in general. This leaves a feeling at the end of the novel that it has been unconvincing, despite some excitement.
September 20, 2015
The Strode Venturer shares many of the elements of Solomon's Seal , a failing shipping line operating in isolated territories, a feud between members of a family an exotic island setting and a group of people seeking to gain their independance form a government they see as oppressive. The Strode Venturer was written first. however, and the shipping company, Strode Orient is listed on the stock exchange, making it a different type of enterprise to the island schooners we see in Solomon's Seal. However, the parallels go further with the character of the drunken has-been ship's officer, who at a moment of crisis can once again rise to the occasion and take command, changing the direction of the events.
Otherwise this novel follows the typical Hammonnd Innes formula: a first person narrator who has become footloose with few ties to his past, a central character with a passion to achieve some unusual goal, an exotic locale, The Maldive Islands, a maritime theme, even prospecting for rare metals (this time magnesium nodules).
I was inclined therefore to see this as a little "been there, done that", but the description of the island is some of Innes' best writing and the abandoning of the mining crew on the island gives the novel the tension it needs.
Otherwise this novel follows the typical Hammonnd Innes formula: a first person narrator who has become footloose with few ties to his past, a central character with a passion to achieve some unusual goal, an exotic locale, The Maldive Islands, a maritime theme, even prospecting for rare metals (this time magnesium nodules).
I was inclined therefore to see this as a little "been there, done that", but the description of the island is some of Innes' best writing and the abandoning of the mining crew on the island gives the novel the tension it needs.
Read
August 2, 2011The blurb at the front claims "this could be Innes' finest book yet." Well, I've only read three of his, and this is comfortably the worst. Utterly dull and boring until about two thirds of the way through, when for a few pages it becomes mildly interesting, only to return to dull and boring for the remainder of the book. The problem is, Innes writes brilliantly about the sea, not so brilliantly about boardroom wrangles, takeover bids, etc....anyway, I would definitely not recommend this, but since I enjoyed the other two books I've read, I intend to read more of him.
February 8, 2016
I like almost everything by Hammond Innes! This one was one of his best!
I loved the dual story of a board room tussle together with a huge sea adventure!
He writes stories exactly the way I like them!
I loved the dual story of a board room tussle together with a huge sea adventure!
He writes stories exactly the way I like them!
July 1, 2008
Of personal interest - I spent a year on Gan in the Maldives.
September 12, 2013
Reasonable but not to his normal standard
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews