THE GUARDSHIP
By James Nelson
Corgi (Transworld) - November 2001
ISBN 0552148385 - Paperback
Historical Fiction
1702, Virginia and at Sea

Reviewed by: Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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If you are like me and cannot resist an exciting seafaring yarn about pirates then you ought to enjoy this one, the first in a new series. Thomas Marlowe is a man with a past - he has been a pirate - but is now a well off and respected inhabitant of Virginia. He has freed all the slaves on his plantation and this sets tongues wagging, but when he fights a duel with the young son of the most powerful family in the colony and kills him, then he is in big trouble. Fortunately he has managed to secure himself the task of commanding the colony's old guardship, a neglected vessel called the Plymouth Prize. Soon he will be battling against some bloodthirsty pirates, wooing the lovely Elizabeth (former owner of his new plantation) and waging an equally vicious war against the family of the dead man.

This is not a short book but it is a quick read, as it is crammed with incident as the King's men battle it out with the pirates and Marlowe has plenty of private battles to fight as well. Making a fat book seem thin is an enviable talent and Nelson manages it well. If you want a novel with lots of memorable characters, then this isn't Patrick O'Brien; but if action is more your bag, then this is one enjoyable read. In the O'Brien tradition, Nelson does take the trouble to explain various nautical terms and manages to do it in an oblique way. This is the first in The Brethren of the Coast trilogy and I will certainly be reading the others.