Richard Delancy now Lt.Comdr, commands the sloop Merlin in the Mediterranean during the period following the Battle of the Nile. Parkinson puts his hero through a brush with slave trade, and the capture of Malta by the British. Delancy may have a friend in James Saumarez, another Gurnseyman. It's good fun. ( )

This is the fourth of Northcote Parkinson's Richard Delancey novels, published in 1977.

The action opens in early 1799, a few months after the end of The Fireship, with Delancey arriving at Gibraltar to take command of HM sloop Merlin. The book takes him through to the truce of October 1801, via the siege of Valetta and service with Delancey's fellow-Guernseyman, Sir James Saumarez, at the battles of Algeciras Bay and Cadiz. In between times, there is a North African interlude and a bit of Channel-Island smuggling.

Altogether, this is a more substantial and interesting book than The Fireship, in which Delancey begins to develop a little bit as an interesting character. The emphasis is still very much on the naval rather than the personal, but Parkinson does seem to be starting to learn that there is more to historical fiction than history alone. As is common in this genre, the author has to use every trick in the book to put his hero in the right place at the right time to take part in all the interesting actions, but somehow not allow him to be promoted more than one step per book. On occasion, this strains credibility a bit, but at least Parkinson is sticking to real time, for the moment. ( )