Drinkwater pieces together some evidence and concludes the French are sending arms to the Yanks via Denmark. He bargains himself a command and sets off to break up the deal.
The second half of this book is an account of an unusually brutal battle, mainly between Drinkwater’s frigate and a larger Danish cruiser. That part of the book is up to Woodman’s usual fine standard, and quite fascinating, although the extremely heavy toll makes for painful reading.
Unfortunately, the first part of the book is not so well written. Throughout the book Woodman indulges far too often in his favorite stylistic quirk–he’s prone to unnecessary foreshadowing. Usually it doesn’t much bother me, but in this book it’s pretty obtrusive.
This review was originally published on LibraryThing.