The Tide of War
1794. There is a French frigate causing trouble in the Caribbean. The British have a frigate there too, but she has lost her captain in decidedly strange circumstances. Newly promoted Nathan Peake is sent to take command, unravel the mystery of what happened to his predecessor, and of course eliminate the French ship.
The first third of the book is background. It takes forever to actually reach the Caribbean but things pick up as soon as we arrive, although the emphasis is on character rather than action. There are lots of coincidences and Peake makes some decidedly dodgy decisions. Mr Hunter has a wonderful knack of painting interesting characters but unfortunately their main effect is to make the hero seem pallid in comparison. Still, there is a lot of tension and a good air of mystery, and I wanted to know how it all ended.
