Hector Lynch, that dashing though rather reluctant pirate, is back for another generous helping of high seas derring-do. Following on from  Corsair and Buccaneer  (also reviewed on this site), Hector and his friends run into John Cook once again and are soon the new crew of a former Danish slaver. They round the Horn, encounter an eerie ship floating in the ice with her crew fled and just the captain dead in his cabin. This is just the start of their adventures, which include a fierce Japanese warlord on a mysterious island and more than one set of fierce natives, as well as a hunt for Hector’s true love, Maria.

If you like your pirates bloodthirsty you might find that, as in the other two books, these are a fairly well behaved lot. This is more of a traditional tale in most of the ways that count, focusing on adventure and color rather than the grim and gritty side of things. As such it swims against the tide of the current trend for dour realism but if, like this reviewer, you find that watching the news gives you all the dour realism that you can handle then this ought to hit the spot. A popular spot too, judging by the viewing figures for the Pirates of the Caribbean films and, like those films (but minus the comedy), this is a fun read. One of the themes running through the series is the joy of good comradeship, and as before there is always something going on in this upbeat book. Severin is adept at delineating a scene with a few words and keeps the story rolling merrily along with a constant stream of adventures, sea battles, new places and promising desert (though never deserted) tropical islands. Hector and his friends are a loveable lot, and hopefully there will be more installments of their adventures to entertain us landlubbers.