Devil to Pay

Richard Delancey #2

by C. Northcote Parkinson

Houghton Mifflin,, 1973.. Near fine in near fine dust jacket (attractive copy, but a hint of spine slant.). First US printing. Although best known for his famous 'Parkinson's Law' and other humorous (but very true) 'laws' of how things work, Parkinson was first a naval historian, who grew up in Guernsey, the birthplace of Delancy, the hero of this novel, and was himself a seaman. Set in the late 18th century just after the French Revolution, this is the first in the series of Delancy naval adventure novels. Wraparound dustjacket illustration by Victor Mays.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Military Fiction, Nautical

273 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

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.

Reviews

[Studebhawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Adventure and the Story Continues.

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.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

good fun

will our hero find a calling in smuggling? what is an enterprising young seagoing man to do? all that an escape from Spain.

[Ahmad Rahmatbar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do not grasp why this book is not as popular as it deserves. The writing was fluent and simple yet exciting and amusing.