The Tide of War

Hunter, pseudonym of British writer/filmmaker Paul Bryers, delivers another slick nautical adventure (after The Time of Terror) in the Patrick O'Brian tradition. In 1794, Nathan Peake is promoted to post captain by the British Admiralty and assumes charge of the Unicorn, a frigate whose previous captain was butchered by Irish mutineers. Nathan's difficult mission is twofold: locate and sink the Virginie, a French frigate terrorizing the Caribbean, and support the crown's Spanish allies in suppressing a slave insurrection. As Nathan's fears of helming the "cursed and doomed" Unicorn mount, he makes few shipboard friends, is haunted by memories of his executed lover, and is saddled with an opportunistic and shifty political adviser. The rousing naval battles, twisty plot, and muscular prose lift Hunter's nautical yarn a few notches above the competition. (Nov.)