Enemies at Every Turn [John Pearce series]

The next book in the pearce series, Enemies at Every Turn, is now listed and will be released in hardcover in the UK on 24 October 2011 and in the US on 15 April 2012.

More on the website

That's good news, tho' he's making us wait a good long time ..

Past time that I got back into "the stack" which has grown beyond proportion in the last year. I moved S.K. Keogh's The Prodigal to the top because I wanted to read a "new"(as in 1st time) author with a clean slate and as I said elsewhere - I enjoyed the book. Then I moved on to an established (if somewhat contriversial) author, Dewey Lambdin and his 18th novel in the Alan Lewrie series Reefs and Shoals and as before, it was a good series and, to me, continued to be such.

Now, it's been almost 18 months since I read David Donachie's Blown off Course and it's time to read the next in this series Enemies at Every Turn. As I began this morning, portions of the last novel are coming to mind and are aided by Donachie's habit of briefly "reprising" the story early on. The John Pearce series is, to me, one continuous story and therefore not one that you can start anywhere but at book one By the Mast Divided. The primary characters remain the same, so it's just a matter of picking up where we left off.

Finished this one earlier today as I took my time to really enjoy and digest it. Much as the difference between "eating" and "dining".

I've made it no secret that David Donachie is one of my favorites and I've read (and have in my library) everything that he's written on the AOS. He's what I refer to when I say "a product of the British public school system". Such authors have an immediately identifiable writing style and it epitomizes the best of classical HNF in the AOS. This is my opinion -- and I'm sticking to it.

The John Pearce story is one of my favorites currently "in the telling". I don't see it as "a series" but as a single continuing story of a "quest". While it takes twists and turns along the way, it's final objective remains the same -- to free "the Pelicans" and destroy Capt. Ralph Barclay in the process. While along the way there are a myriad of "side plots, stories and accompanying actions" the impetus still remains "the quest".

While this, the 8th book "in the story" Enemies At Every Turn spends most of its time in these "side plots, stories and accompanying actions" it did so to the total enjoyment of me, the reader. On a parallel timeline you're taken from one side plot, story or action, to another (or others) and then back again in a manner that I don't find "jolting" or distracting, because all are moving forward.....there is no wandering or drifting anywhere at any time.

David Donachie's "writing" style is very "readable" to me and that's a serious point when you're telling me "your story". If you don't have a good "voice" then I'm apt to not have a good "ear".

To my "ear" I rate Enemies at Every Turn one of the best of this "story". And I haven't even mentioned the "side story" of Emily Barclay, but I'll leave that one for you to read yourself. But don't "dawdle" because the 9th book A Sea of Troubles is due out in Nov. 2012.

It's in my library -- with the rest of "the story".

http://www.historicnavalfiction.com/book-title-index/e/2203-enemies-at-every-turn