“Vancouver Island’s Sean Thomas Russell has successfully has joined the ranks of C.S. Forester, Alexander Kent and Dudley Pope, my favorite writers of naval fiction. Russell’s first novel, Under Enemy Colors, was published in 2007 and has since been released as a trade paperback. There are two more books In the series recently or soon to be published. I have already ordered book 2.
The time is the early 1790s during the early stages of the French Revolution. We meet Lt. Charles Hayden (R.N.), son of an English father (deceased) and a French mother (now married to a wealthy American merchant in Boston). He has fond memories of his time spent in France as a child but is also haunted by the fresher memory of a horrific incident he suffered in the midst of Revolutionary riot in Paris shortly before the time of this book. By most standards Lt. Hayden is a rising star in the Navy. But as the story opens, he is without a ship.
When First Secretary of the British Admiralty summons Hayden to their offices, he is offered a position as First Lieutenant on a 32-gun frigate. He is to report on the activities of the ship’s captain who has many friends in high places and a reputation for shunning combat—not the scenario Lt. Hayden was hoping for, and marginally better than a poke in the eye.
If you want action, there is plenty of it. If you want people to cheer for and against, plenty of those, too. Not to mention a great history lesson of the time and, of course, a budding romance with a lovely young woman.
My advice: Go! Buy! Read!” —Jim Harris, Retired Sales Rep