Hoare and the Matter of Treason

Rating:
Summary: His last and best work
Review: Commander Bartholomew Hoare enjoys being a naval officer who predominately uses his skills and that of his crew on land, which allows him time with his wife and child. His idyllic time ends when his superior Admiral Abercrombie orders Hoare to find missing sensitive documents taken from London's Admiralty House.

Hoare knows that an inside traitor had to have stolen the documents. He makes inquiries, but soon finds his work endangers his beloved family as an unknown assailant kidnaps them to blackmail Hoare into failing on his mission. Treason threatens to topple the government, but Hoare now must choose between saving his family or saving his country unless the unconventional "sailor" can figure out some other path that rescues both.

The third and final Hoare historical mystery is a great homage to the late Wilder Perkins. The story line is filed with action as Hoare struggles between his conflicting dilemmas. Hoare remains heroic and the appearances of real people add to the Regency era background of the novel. This novel and the previous two books are some of the best early nineteenth century stories of the past decade and worth searching for and then reading.

Harriet Klausner

Rating:
Summary: Not Patrick O'Brien but Not Bad...
Review: If you like naval historical fiction, you will probably like this book. I tend to prefer the best writers, like Patrick O'Brien and David Donachie, (Dudley Pope's works are not consistently as good, but they are also "good reads.")
The Hoare series (3) is "good"--not great, but good enough that after this book, I bought the other two. It's true there are a couple of questionable references to Horatio Hornblower and
a clerk named "Crachit," but overall, the book does hold one's interest and does contain good plot, setting and characterization. I liked the protagonist, Hoare, and found him to be intelligent, astute and sympathetic. If you are starved for naval historical fiction of this genre, and assuming you have read all of O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin series, I would recommend the Hoare series, plus all of the David Donachie and Jan Needle novels. In fact, once the Hoare series is read, I have only the hope that Needle and Donachie will continue to publish more in their respective series. I have read just about every single historical novel in the 17th-19th century naval genre, and I would place the "Hoare" series as a "7" on a scale of 1 to 10, with O'Brien being a 10, and Needle and Donachie "9's." If you like Dudley Pope and Dewey Lambdin, you should definitely try the Hoare books.

Rating:
Summary: Not Patrick O'Brien but Not Bad...
Review: If you like naval historical fiction, you will probably like this book. I tend to prefer the best writers, like Patrick O'Brien and David Donachie, (Dudley Pope's works are not consistently as good, but they are also "good reads.")
The Hoare series (3) is "good"--not great, but good enough that after this book, I bought the other two. It's true there are a couple of questionable references to Horatio Hornblower and
a clerk named "Crachit," but overall, the book does hold one's interest and does contain good plot, setting and characterization. I liked the protagonist, Hoare, and found him to be intelligent, astute and sympathetic. If you are starved for naval historical fiction of this genre, and assuming you have read all of O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin series, I would recommend the Hoare series, plus all of the David Donachie and Jan Needle novels. In fact, once the Hoare series is read, I have only the hope that Needle and Donachie will continue to publish more in their respective series. I have read just about every single historical novel in the 17th-19th century naval genre, and I would place the "Hoare" series as a "7" on a scale of 1 to 10, with O'Brien being a 10, and Needle and Donachie "9's." If you like Dudley Pope and Dewey Lambdin, you should definitely try the Hoare books.

Rating:
Summary: Final installment the strongest
Review: This book ties up most of the loose ends of the first two
books of this series. I disagree with the author injecting
Horatio Hornblower and a rather mousy Admiralty
clerk named Cratchit in where they really weren't needed.
It just seemed to cheapen a reasonably good read.

Rating:
Summary: The villain tracked to his lair
Review: This is the last book of the trilogy by the late Wilder Perkins. It is necessary to read the first two books of the series to understand the story. This novel seems to be set in December 1805 and/or January 1806. Like some other authors, Perkins has compressed the action into too short a time frame. People dash about at breakneck speeds. Evidence of the author's lack of time sense shows up when he mentions a sailing ship going from London to Botany Bay in 100 days - a journey that would have taken 9 or 10 months at a minimum in 1805. The late Patrick O'Brien also seemed to have that problem.

The novel finds Bartholomew Hoare finally coming to grips with the main French agent in London. The man had deluded various people with visions of grandeur if they supported Napolean, and had purchased other people's services with gold. The spymaster is a bit inept, and things start to come apart in his organization when Hoare sets the crew of the Royal Duke on the man's trail. The man kidnaps Hoare's new wife and their adopted child, and tries to toy with Commander Hoare instead of killing him - a dangerous mistake.

The royal family is shown in an unfavorable light. There are also comments on the attitudes towards lower classes. When a woman's maid is raped and murdered, it is brushed aside by a comment that "she was only a servant."

Overall, it could have been a better novel. The plot is good, but at points the author rambles and digresses. He seems to go into side details when they are not needed, and tries to throw in too much nautical jargon. He also repeats jokes - something that is amuzing the first time tends to get stale with constant retelling (the author must have been insufferable at parties). He makes the assumption that an admiral who was promoted up through the various ranks would be unfamiliar with the process. He also gets a bit surreal in a final chase through underground passageways. As in the other novels, a map would have been helpful.

Rating:
Summary: The villain tracked to his lair
Review: This is the last book of the trilogy by the late Wilder Perkins. It is necessary to read the first two books of the series to understand the story. This novel seems to be set in December 1805 and/or January 1806. Like some other authors, Perkins has compressed the action into too short a time frame. People dash about at breakneck speeds. Evidence of the author's lack of time sense shows up when he mentions a sailing ship going from London to Botany Bay in 100 days - a journey that would have taken 9 or 10 months at a minimum in 1805. The late Patrick O'Brien also seemed to have that problem.

The novel finds Bartholomew Hoare finally coming to grips with the main French agent in London. The man had deluded various people with visions of grandeur if they supported Napolean, and had purchased other people's services with gold. The spymaster is a bit inept, and things start to come apart in his organization when Hoare sets the crew of the Royal Duke on the man's trail. The man kidnaps Hoare's new wife and their adopted child, and tries to toy with Commander Hoare instead of killing him - a dangerous mistake.

The royal family is shown in an unfavorable light. There are also comments on the attitudes towards lower classes. When a woman's maid is raped and murdered, it is brushed aside by a comment that "she was only a servant."

Overall, it could have been a better novel. The plot is good, but at points the author rambles and digresses. He seems to go into side details when they are not needed, and tries to throw in too much nautical jargon. He also repeats jokes - something that is amuzing the first time tends to get stale with constant retelling (the author must have been insufferable at parties). He makes the assumption that an admiral who was promoted up through the various ranks would be unfamiliar with the process. He also gets a bit surreal in a final chase through underground passageways. As in the other novels, a map would have been helpful.