An Extra Knot Part V

by Hugh Lupus

Two missions are afoot. The Asturian, Sergeant Massu must seek out a princess in hiding who may hold the key to bringing down the Italian Fascists while Sergeant Dodd and Georgiou are determined to kill the German General Bräuer. On the grander stage the way must be cleared for an allied invasion of Greece, the enemy must at all costs believe that the target is really Sicily and the master of deception remains Commandante O'Neill. Meanwhile a refitted HMS Hood is preparing to sail again...and this time towards the rising sun...and a shell-shocked Bombardier Milligan is in acute need of assistance.

168 pages, Hardcover

Published March 19, 2022

Reviews

[Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to review the whole book so far. It's not a pentology but a complete novel which seems to be still in progress. Sometimes it was tedious but it was also brilliant in places.

1) The voices of the ships made me laugh and cry and love. They could as easily be sentient starships in a SF novel and it works beautifully with the one exception of the German ship which was captured and for me there are reasons why that is jarring, not least its masculinity plus another reason which would be something of a spoiler.
2) The Republic of Asturias. Jorge, O'Neill and the girl with the doll in particular.
3) Guest appearances by: Geordie McIntyre from Alan Price's 'Jarrow Song'; the cast of 'To Kill a Mockingbird': and by Spike Milligan. There may have been others I didn't notice but they worked well.
4) Greece
5) Ronnie Prasad, the Dog and the Italian prisoner.

As far as I can tell, the changes are all tiny but they add up (as all butterflies do) to a hurricane. Something of a tour de force.

[Chris Davison]

AS enjoyable as the previous parts of the series.
Eagerly awaiting the next instalment (6 weeks overdue already)