The Fox and the Faith

The Fox and the Faith (Pinnacle Books, 1989) is a rousing adventure that should please any reader of historic naval fiction. This is the first of a four-book series that features Patrick Dalton. It is 1777 and the American revolution is starting to shape up as serious bid for independence. A lieutenant in the Royal Navy unjustly accused of treason, Dalton escapes New York in the schooner Faith, the personal prize of Captain Hart of the frigate Courtesan. Dalton has already publicly called Hart a coward (with complete justification, of course) and Hart is maddened with a desire for revenge. Dalton is the hunted fox and the action of the book moves inexorably toward a resolution. There is plenty of seamanship and hot action, as well as a charming love story, along the way. All of the ship handling passages are aboard the Faith, and Parkinson seems to be a thorough master of fore and aft rigged craft. Nevertheless, Parkinson was a writer of action adventure and not a naval specialist and a few gaffes appear, especially concerning the frigate. Early in the book, he describes the frigate as having two gun decks. What makes a frigate a frigate is that it's a single decker (even if it mounts a few guns on the quarterdeck and forecastle). Moreover, it is a 44 gun frigate. Frigates of that size (super-frigates) did not appear for another 20 years, and then in the American navy, not the British. Finally, at one point, he called the Courtesan an first-rate ship of the line! These quibbles do not mar the enjoyment of the book. It's a corker -- go read it.

Dan Parlinson has created a novel that is quick and easy to read and as other reviewers have mentioned, can be read in a day.Based in the late 1700s independence era Royal Navy we are introduced to a young Patric Dalton who must sail a small schooner against the new US naval froces and other advesaries. With a motley crew and a ship that is being slowly battered into twigs, he soon finds a simple solution to his problems. Finding a new Hull.

Outstanding! After picking up "The Fox and The Faith" as an impulse one boring afternoon I refused to set it down again until I finished the last page. (Despite my families objections about dinner - let them order pizza) As a lover of authentically written historical adventures Parkinson's style of humor, quiet romance and intelligent high sea strategy hit exactly the right note. I found myself starting it again with the novel in one hand, (a pizza slice dangling from my lips) and a sailing dictionary in the other. Parkinson helped turn even a seasick-prone landlocked Wisconsinite into a sailing master, at least in my imagionation. Any fans of Daphne Du Maurier's "Frenchman's Creek"? "The Fox and the Faith" should be your next sailing adventure.

A fan of his westerns I also love sea stories. The humor in mr Parkinsons books is great from the shock the gunnery officer Dalton has to find a woman who can shoot big guns to great plot twists that the book takes. I feel that it is better writting than kent forister and especaly todays most popular sea author ( of example the yellow admeral) I could never read more than 10 pages till I was bored and quit. With mr Parkinson I find I can hardly put a book down to sleep and that rereading is almost as good as the first time. I fear giving more detail because the suprizes are such a joy, but the apearence of the sailmaker nearly sprained a rib from laughting