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A Ship of War

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About this listen

Charles Hayden sets off aboard the ill-fated HMS Themis with orders to destroy a French frigate and to gather intelligence from a royalist spy. On discovering French plans for an imminent invasion of England, Hayden must return to Portsmouth to give warning before it's too late. But the enemy has been lying in wait for him, and so begins a dangerous chase out into the Atlantic and into the clutches of a powerful French squadron…

©2012 Sean Thomas Russell (P)2012 W F Howes Ltd Historical Mystery Thriller & Suspense Fiction
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That said, better than book two. Naval storyline is good
Narrator continues to be excellent.

decidedly sick of the Henry storyline

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This the third outing for Charles Hayden and my least favourite so far.



He was such a promising character, a bright, talented and ambitious naval officer who has no influential friends and therefore does not get on as well as he should. Unfortunately, the Hayden of the book is losing his way rather and becoming dare I say it a bit dull. The author has made Hayden more fallible, which is a good thing because no-one could be right all the time. However, he spends most of this book pining for his love Henrietta and the adventures at sea have to share the space with events on shore. There are no encounters with senior officers, friendly to him or otherwise and even Mr Stephens of the Admiralty makes no appearance. There is, however, a lot of time with Henrietta and her family and Hayden's possible rival in love while Hayden himself is away at sea. The consequences of the confusion left at the end of book 2 are played out in detail.



I listen to these novels for the adventure side of things and the will-they-won't they was pitched just right in the two earlier novels. I am not that interested in Henrietta, who became less not more interesting as the novel went on.



Nick Boulton's reading was as good as ever and his characterisation is excellent. Sadly, I felt this book did not give him enough to work with, unlike the first two.

A Ship of War

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Sean carries us along on another adventure with his hero, allowing us to feel his exhilaration in battle and his frustration in his personal life in a way that is wholly believable.

A Master and Commander of his genre

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...is the gaps between book releases - 18months to find out what happens next is too long - really interesting descriptions though - you can really feel yourself as part of it...

The only problem with this author...

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I must admit that I'm addicted to this series but really don't know why , the narration is what makes the story come alive , Nick Boulton does so many divergent characters that you can feel what it would be like on board ship with all the fantastic crew , each one playing there part well.For me the author does well but should stay away from mixing in his meaningless love stories as it just makes pointless sense and with know effect on the main story ! , really boring .

Captain C Hayden does it again.......

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