Ranked as a lieutenant despite his undistinguished naval career, Richard Delancey lands a special secret mission, thanks to his command of French. To his chagrin, the mission goes awry. But casting about for fresh opportunity, Delancey becomes involved in customs collection on the Isle of Wight and thwarting the high-stakes activities of smugglers.
Cyril Northcote Parkinson was a naval historian and author of some sixty books. He was educated at Cambridge, and went on to teach in Malaya, and in the United States at Harvard and in Illinois.
He was an important scholar in the field of public administration.
His most famous work is Parkinson’s Law, or The Pursuit of Progress.
This series continues at a pace full of adventure and intrigue for even the most casual reader. I read book #2 & book #3 as one continuing story line. As such, I submit the same review for both here. What I find notable about this series is the depth and complexity of the story line. In many ways the story takes on more complexity as we get more information of the time and place of this series in history. To this degree, our hero has obviously grown in ability and accomplishment, but, he still remains somewhat of a mystery. We see so little of his personal history and his story. We see, how even with all of his success, our hero never quite measures up to his fellows in the Navy who can claim noble connections. The real story of these early books in the series is the British Navy. The history, strategy and tactics of sailing warships at sea, and the men who manned, fought, and died on them remains the story here. This is understandable given that the author has a background in naval history of this period with the British Navy in particular. This series remains a good read, and I look forward to our hero’s new adventures.