Customer Reviews

Enemy In Sight

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Enemy in Sight: Alexander Kent

A major strength of Kent's stories has always been the convincing and detailed descriptions of landings and small-boat operations by naval contingents. In this story Richard Bolitho, despite increasing rank, proves himself as addicted as ever to leading what are essentially forlorn hopes onshore while his subordinates are left in command of his ship. The account of getting a landing party and its equipment through a steaming tropical morass to take the enemy in the rear comes across as horribly realistic to this reader, who has had his own share of wading, sweating and swearing in mangrove swamps! The accounts of action afloat are equally convincing. Bolitho has to cope with yet another unsympathetic and incompetent superior officer but is sustained by "old stalwart" friends and companions, and the arrival of an important new one, even as personal tragedy adds to professional challenges. The contrast between the cold misery of blockade duty off the Biscay coast with the humid discomforts of Caribbean service is a memorable aspect of the story. Contacts with Dutch forces, which usually don't feature in these stories (Bolitho missed out on the Battle of Camperdown!) are another interesting aspect, the more poignant since the officers involve realise clearly that though they are allies for now, political forces outside their control will soon make them enemies. Overall, a very enjoyable addition to the series.

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.

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 maintenance
and other books

Using his familiar formula, Alexander Kent continues the Bolitho saga on both sides of the Atlantic. Facing a ruthless Admiral while under the command of an incompetent Commodore, Bolitho mut deal with personal and professional difficulites. In this story, he must come to terms with the legacy of his brother while awaiting the birth of his first child. In typical Kent fare, Bolitho survives blockade duty, Caribbean swamps and near mutiny to set the score even with a ruthless French Admiral, commanding a superior force.

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 only one person - yep! the Commodore! Now the wound ends up being very minor, but the Commodore milks it for all he is worth until it gets infected. In the beginning of the crucial final battle, the Commodore's arm must be cut off! While fitting, this whole sequence stretches incredulity.

The next book surely will see Bolitho in charge of squadrons of ships on his way up the ladder.

Don't get me wrong, I like Bolitho. But it seems it is more dangerous to be the object of the now-captain's affection than to serve on a gun deck in the heat of battle.

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.