Larcum Mudge - BookWyrm

ISBN:: 979-8-6389-7272-1
ASIN:: B087HD1SFR

(1 review)

On a hot night in the Caribbean, a lone Royal Navy ship commanded by a sadistic captain, succumbs to bloody mutiny. With the Peace of Amiens imminent, Captain Alexander Clay and the crew of the Griffin are sent to track down and recapture the rebel ship. But when they arrive in the Leeward Islands, they find that much more is at stake. Smuggling and corruption seem to be rife in those sunlit waters, while ghosts from the past stir in the shadows. The discovery of a hidden French ship of the line, threatening to cut loose and devastate British commerce, will test Clay and his crew to the limit. And who is Larcum Mudge, the mysterious new recruit who has joined the crew of the Griffin?

1 edition

ridel reviewed Larcum Mudge by Philip K Allan (Alexander Clay, #8)

A Tightly Plotted Age of Sail Adventure

4 stars

It's been a while since I've read the Alexander Clay series so I was worried my tastes might have changed. I'm glad to say that it's still a very entertaining Age of Sail story, and thankfully that British passive-aggressive social construct is minimized so that the flavour is there without it becoming frustrating. There's lots of action that's split between Captain Clay's command, as well as that of the common sailor, such that the narration feels well-rounded yet concise. The story is very tight with minimal filler.

That said... it was too concise, as the antagonists were under-developed, and the titular Larcum Mudge to be underwhelming due to a lack of page count. He's yet-another-single-novel-character that Philip Allan introduces and discards as if this were a TV series. I haven't read the next novel, but I doubt the character will return. And this brings me to my main complaint: the …

It's been a while since I've read the Alexander Clay series so I was worried my tastes might have changed. I'm glad to say that it's still a very entertaining Age of Sail story, and thankfully that British passive-aggressive social construct is minimized so that the flavour is there without it becoming frustrating. There's lots of action that's split between Captain Clay's command, as well as that of the common sailor, such that the narration feels well-rounded yet concise. The story is very tight with minimal filler.

That said... it was too concise, as the antagonists were under-developed, and the titular Larcum Mudge to be underwhelming due to a lack of page count. He's yet-another-single-novel-character that Philip Allan introduces and discards as if this were a TV series. I haven't read the next novel, but I doubt the character will return. And this brings me to my main complaint: the episodic feeling of this novel. It's a personal preference but if a novel is skippable to the overall story of a series, I tend to really dislike those books. This novel is less critical than its predecessors and felt solid but uninspired, though it did surprise me enough with character development that I actually gave it another star.

Overall - recommended.