Tag Archives: naval warfare

#BookReview ‘The Devil to Pay’ by Katie Daysh #historicalfiction #adventure #navalwarfare

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It’s 1802 and the Anglo-French war is over. I thoroughly enjoyed Leeward, first in the Nightingale & Courtney historical naval series by Katie Daysh, so was keen to read the next book. In The Devil to Pay, though the enamoured sailors set sail for the Mediterranean on the same ship they are soon separated. Katie DayshLeeward was Hiram Nightingale’s story, The Devil to Pay is told from the perspective of Lieutenant Arthur Courtney. The forbidden relationship of these two men, separated by social conventions, the law and nautical miles, is the skeleton of these books. Courtney is not like Nightingale; he was born into rural poverty and is still uncomfortable dining at the captain’s table. When HMS Loyal goes missing on route to Malta with two important diplomats aboard, Courtney and Nightingale are enlisted on the ship sent to find her. Their secret mission involves working closely with their one-time enemy, France. As the HMS Lysander sails south, accompanied by French frigate, the Fantôme, their journey is marred by the discovery of two Lysanders, crew members, having sex. An onboard punishment involving pain and humiliation turns into a naval tribunal in Gibraltar. With the Lysander stuck in dock, the Fantôme, with Nightingale on board, sets sail to continue the search for the Loyal. Shipwreck and piracy are suspected and Courtney, following on belatedly from Gibraltar, doesn’t know if Hiram is alive or dead, free or enslaved.
Can love survive separation, pirates, shipwreck, doubts and treachery? Daysh handles the emotions of the separated lovers with a light hand. Just when Courtney is distraught at Nightingale’s departure, he must once again take responsibility for a ship without a direct order to do so. Should he follow his instincts, or naval law? There are so many twists and turns in this plot that it’s impossible to forsee the ending, its a rollercoaster of emotions just as stormy as the waves that the sailors face.
Excellent. This is a series to read in order, so be sure to read Leeward first. The English and the French may not be enemies in this book, as they were in Leeward, but war between the two will be rekindled a year after The Devil to Pay ends.
Next in the series is A Merciful Sea.

Here’s my review of the first book in this series:-
LEEWARD #1NIGHTINGALE&COURTNEY

If you like this, try:-
‘The Blue Afternoon’ by William Boyd
‘A Rustle of Silk’ by Alys Clare #1GABRIELTAVERNER
‘Rush Oh!’ by Shirley Barrett

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview THE DEVIL TO PAY by Katie Daysh https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8Wd via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- Patrick Gale

#BookReview ‘Leeward’ by Katie Daysh #historicalfiction #adventure #navalwarfare

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I’m new to historical naval fiction and wasn’t sure what to expect from Leeward by Katie Daysh, first in the Nightingale & Courtney mystery series. Life at sea is brutal, and beautiful. It is lonely, and companionable. It is exhilarating, it is terrifying. Katie Daysh1800 Antigua. For Hiram Nightingale, naval captain and veteran of the Battle of the Nile, the sea is everything. ‘The sea. The sea… Nearly everything of importance in his life had happened on the ocean.’ Horribly injured, physically and emotionally, after the famous battle of the Napoleonic Wars and grieving for his lost crew, Hiram is encouraged back to sea by his father and father-in-law who arrange a captaincy in the West Indies. Expecting a quiet commission, instead he finds himself captain of the ‘Scylla’ charged with hunting down and apprehending a mutinied ship, the ‘Ulysses.’ His mission is to chase the ‘Ulysses’ wherever she goes, even around Cape Horn into the Pacific. It soon becomes clear that Hiram hasn’t been told the real reason for his mission or why the ‘Ulysses’ crew mutinied. He is uncertain who to trust either onboard or on shore and uncertain about his own capability to do the job.
I took a while to settle into the story but after that I didn’t want to put it down. For me there is just enough nautical detail to be interesting but not so much that I started to skip sections. Naval warfare tactics are fascinating as are the politics of the region and the character clashes on board, but professionalism, talent and justice mean nothing in the face of ostentatious wealth and overwhelming greed. Nightingale becomes a detective, hunting his prey, trying to decipher the truth of the crime. He is on a nautical journey, making his peace with the sea and grieving those he lost in battle; he’s also on an emotional journey, being honest with himself about his deepest nature. The gay sub-plot complements the main storyline but doesn’t dominate. As Hiram struggles with the lonely responsibility of command, his dreams are full of flashbacks to his loss of the ‘Lion’ at the Nile, moments with his wife Louisa, and an unforgettable, unforgiveable incident in his childhood. The journey parallels throughout to Homer’s Odyssey are handled with a light touch: Hiram’s ship the ‘Scylla’ is named after Homer’s multi-headed monster, while ‘Ulysses’ is the Roman name for Odysseus.
What a surprising delight this novel is, an insight into the professionalism of the Royal Navy, a fight to catch the criminals, the ocean, the unpredictable elements and a naval trial.

Read my review of the next book in the series:-
THE DEVIL TO PAY #2NIGHTINGALE&COURTNEY

If you like this, try:-
‘The Silver Wolf’ by JC Harvey #1FISKARDO’SWAR
‘Nero’ by Conn Iggulden #1NERO
‘The Surfacing’ by Cormac James

And if you’d like to tweet a link to THIS post, here’s my suggested tweet:
#BookReview LEEWARD by Katie Daysh https://wp.me/p2ZHJe-8Qr via @SandraDanby

COMING SOON… THE NEXT BOOK I REVIEW WILL BE:- SW Perry