Now read on! This is another thrilling adventure following hot on the heels of HMS Expedient and Port Royal. If you haven’t read any sea stories before and are wondering what all the fuss is about, you would be advised to start with this series (they need to be read in order). You have the lot in these books - descriptions of life aboard a fighting frigate, sinister spies and secret missions, gripping descriptions of sea battles, pirates and humor. This last ingredient is not always present in this type of fiction, and reading this series makes me realize once again how much more well-rounded a story is when it is included. Rennie and Hayter are engaging characters, very real seeming with faults as well as virtues, and if you are mourning the loss of Patrick O’Brien, then again these might well be the books for you. They are the books for anybody who enjoys a good adventure story, replete with derring-do on one hand and the minutiae of late 18th century life on land, as well as at sea on the other. If you want romance then you had better go elsewhere, but with so much else going on I didn’t miss it so maybe you won’t either. Highly recommended.