Enemy in Sight!

R Bolitho continues to satisfy the readers quest for exciting historic fiction. This is an important novel in the series as the seeds are sown for several story lines in future novels. Great action, much sailing, and an interesting exploration of how people stay connected over the years and distance (even without cell phones).

Captain Bolitho starts this book on top of his world. His ship is newly retorfitted in port and is now a fast manueverable ship of the line; his married life is a dream and he just finds out that his wife is pregnant with their first child, and his ship even gets a contingent of volunteers who come to his ship because HE is the Captain! Of course, from this point on everything goes downhill. Bolitho's appointment upon going to sea is for blockade duty in a squadron headed up by a Commodore who is completely incompetent but very well connected politically. The French take advantage of this and manage a breakout which the Commodore is ordered to refute. This takes the ship from the cold shore off of France in winter to the Caribbean in the spring and summer. The French Admiral is ruthless and smart and has allies in the West Indies while the Commodore is a bungling fool who looks to find ways to do nothing while staying within his orders. There is one battle scene after the other where Bolitho takes charge of his ship, and of the squadron, as they battle the wily Frenchman. While Bolitho does his normal heroics (is he the only officer of any worth in the whole British navy?) his untrained men coalesce around him and together they achieve nearly impossible feats. Bolitho finally takes over from the Commodore and leads a vastly depleted squadron against the almost fresh French and - not surprisingly - emerges victorious at the end. Even this is not enough as the author throws several new twists into the plot. For instance, Bolitho suffers at least two personal tragedies over the course of the book while dealing with the worst crises of his career. He even gets a new midshipman who turns out to be his nephew - his older brother's son. Now Bolitho must struggle with how much to tell his nephew about his traitorous brother - the boy's father - while at the same time not showing any favoritism. In this book the author also hints that Bolitho is being groomed for higher command. He starts thinking about the strategy of his opponent and what he might be trying to accomplish globally and across time rather than focusing purely on the tactical necessities of the moment. Allday makes comments about become the Coxswain of an Admiral, and the battles that Bolitho wins get greater renown in England. As usual, Alexander Kent's description of the battle scenes and the sailing ship maneuvers are top notch. And also as usual, he puts in scenes supposedly showing how his people adore him which are stilted in prose and completely unbelievable. In this book a major theme is the incompetent senior office: this part of the book is completely unbelievable as we are told that the Commodore stays away from the deck for days on end and only emerges in battle and to take glory. What stretches the story even more is that in one engagement, the Commodore comes on deck just in time to give one order which allows for one shot from the doomed enemy. That shot in turn, hits o

This may be the best of the Bolitho series so far. Bolitho is wed and his 74-gun ship-of-the-line Hyperion goes into dry dock for a refit, including a new copper bottom, removing the forest of weed from her hull which has accumulated during her years of continuous service, slowing her down considerably.Then, after six-months of a complete refit, she is ordered to blockade duty off France, and seconded to the command of Commodore (the lowest flag rank) Mathias Pelham-Martin, who proves to be an incompetent, egotistical officer who holds his rank only because of political influence ashore, and whose superior holds an old grudge against him.I suspect that Kent uses these plots which include incompetent, unfeeling superior officers because virtually all of his adult readers have experienced such leadership at one time or other, rather than because the British Navy was rife with them. Certainly in the U.S. Navy, the superiors I served under were virtually all competent and dedicated officers. The incompetents get weeded out by the system rather rapidly. But the stories all seem to revolve around the Queegs and Blighs, as if they were common phenomenon. And every office, factory or warehouse knows of a supervisor who has been promoted because of politics or the "Peter principle," or an incompetent female who has slept her way to the top.In this story, Kent takes us again on a chase to the West Indies and back, with lots of sea action, drama between him and his brother, Hugh, and nephew, and other twists of plot.As usual, he breathes life into his characters and the story holds you spellbound. On one occasion, I kept reading until 2:00 a.m., and my wife was hollering at me. You should love this one!Joseph (Joe) Pierre, USN(Ret)author of Handguns and Freedom...their care and maintenanceand other books

Mr. Kent does it again. Bolitho's adventures take him to duty blockading the French, then off to the distant edges of empire. The salt spray and billowing mainsails assail the reader with a sense of being aboard HMS Hyperion in rough seas and dangerous waters.Again, Bolitho's private life seems to glow like a fresh candle, but reality quickly sets in as tragedy strikes, his brother appears and his brother's son steps aboard as a midshipman. Plenty of crackling cannon fire, splintered quarterdecks, flaming hulks, nasty Frenchmen who seem to ignore the conduct of behavior in war, a near mutiny as Bolitho, his incompetent commadore and his trusted friends Inch, Allday and Herrick help Sir Richard face danger and death on the high seas. The chapters when Bolitho leads a party across a swamp in small cutters is remarkable. Powerful stuff and makes one feel apart of the crew. Find yourself a berth, tighten a rag 'round yer ears, lad and watch for the French frigate on the starboard quarter, hull down.

I read Enemy in Sight! during the summer and for the life of me I can't remember much of it. I remember that Bolitho's personal life went south but the details of a book I read so recently are lost. What I do remember is a land engagement reminiscent of Lieutenant Hornblower and a sea chase at the end leading to a climactic battle. It was exciting at the time but has blurred with the other Bolitho novels in the last 3-4 months. Perhaps I read too much Bolitho too soon or perhaps it's that these novels are so formulaic that they all appear the same after awhile.My advice to readers is to read the Bolitho books published before 1980 as this one was. They were all excellent action stories told with a WWII's veteran's knowledge of the horrors of war. Enemy in Sight! was from this period and I'll give it four stars accordingly even though my memory has failed me.