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Title: Hoare and the Matter of Treason: A Maritime Mystery Featuring Captain Nartholomew Hoare
ISBN: 031227291X
Author:
Wilder Perkins
Publicate Date: 2001-03
Publish: 2001-03
List Price: $22.95
Average Customer Rating: 3.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $2.00
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| Customer Review: |
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1: Author did't want to write this book. (only review you need.. covers it all)
The obvious plagiarisms:
1) "Make it so" almost every time Hoare orders his crew show the author like to watch Star Trek NG very big in the 1990s.
2) Hoare is about to be attack in a rowboat that is taking him back to the Royal Duke. The author has built this up so you know it is coming and you are waiting. So Hoare is sitting in the boat and relaxing because he is happy to be out of London and on the water. This is the abreviated quote...
'Believe me, my young friend, there is NOTHING--absolute nothing--half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,' he went on dreamily: 'messing--
about--in--boats; messing----'
If you ever read the wind in the willows you know this is an exact copy of the text. It ruins the scene and suspense.
The author constantly make sexual innuendoes out of the blue for no reason. It is like he thought them up and then looked for ways to use them.
The plot falls apart because it just doesn't have any reality. The network is after Hoare and he knows it. He takes no precautions to protect his family... They are take hostage to make Hoare do their bidding. The group stops to do things during the abduction that any organized network would never have done.
Now Hoare complies and is now trapped in the house wih the network leaders as their prisoner while his whife and child are hostages upstairs.
What does the leader want to do? No. Yes! Play poker with Hoare. Play poker for the life of his family. COUGH COUGH
Ok so through this (if you still are reading the book) Hoare gets his daughter brought to him in the room and SUDDENLY there is a fight in the other room from drunk men. EVERYONE leaves the room to go to the men, not even leaving gaurds. This is supposed to be an organised spy network!?
Hoare hides the kid in the room instead of out the window! Heads upstairs to get his wife. She swears and is vulgar (which for the character is untrue and not in the style of the 1800s). They are then trapped when the leaders decide "oh yeah we have a prisoner we have left unguarded for about an hour". The Royal Duke's crew shows up (through the upstairs window) and fights them off while Hoare and his wife escape through the ?window? The author doesn't say... If so why didn't they do that 20 minutes ago?
Ok, so now his wife and daughter were kindapped because Hoare "doted" over them. So what does Hoare and his wife do? Go back to the inn and eat and go to sleep, telling the crew the daughter is hidden in the room and to pick her up.!?
The leader gets away with the daughter and now what does the loving Hoare do (and his wife)? Go home. Oh but they do send one of the crew out to look for the man!? So now we come to the end. They wait for an attack on royal duke (how they were sure it was coming is never really clear). They overwhelm the attackers and the leader again leaves with the daughter. Hoare follows to the sewer/tunnels under london. Then is led half way through the system by some guy and woman. Suddenly the woman sprains her ankle and can't go on (this couple claimes to have known every inch of the tunnels). So Hoare goes on alone. Kills one more gaurd with un-needed bloody description. And attacks the leader. It is all over in about a paragraph and ends with Hoare walking away with the girl. A perfect ending to this book. Makes you feel like the author threw his hands in the air and walked away. Wish I had after the first chapter.
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2: Not Patrick O'Brien but Not Bad...
If you like naval historical fiction, you will probably like this book. I tend to prefer the best writers, like Patrick O'Brien and David Donachie, (Dudley Pope's works are not consistently as good, but they are also "good reads.")
The Hoare series (3) is "good"--not great, but good enough that after this book, I bought the other two. It's true there are a couple of questionable references to Horatio Hornblower and
a clerk named "Crachit," but overall, the book does hold one's interest and does contain good plot, setting and characterization. I liked the protagonist, Hoare, and found him to be intelligent, astute and sympathetic. If you are starved for naval historical fiction of this genre, and assuming you have read all of O'Brien's Aubrey-Maturin series, I would recommend the Hoare series, plus all of the David Donachie and Jan Needle novels. In fact, once the Hoare series is read, I have only the hope that Needle and Donachie will continue to publish more in their respective series. I have read just about every single historical novel in the 17th-19th century naval genre, and I would place the "Hoare" series as a "7" on a scale of 1 to 10, with O'Brien being a 10, and Needle and Donachie "9's." If you like Dudley Pope and Dewey Lambdin, you should definitely try the Hoare books.
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3: Final installment the strongest
This book ties up most of the loose ends of the first two
books of this series. I disagree with the author injecting
Horatio Hornblower and a rather mousy Admiralty
clerk named Cratchit in where they really weren't needed.
It just seemed to cheapen a reasonably good read.
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4: The villain tracked to his lair
This is the last book of the trilogy by the late Wilder Perkins. It is necessary to read the first two books of the series to understand the story. This novel seems to be set in December 1805 and/or January 1806. Like some other authors, Perkins has compressed the action into too short a time frame. People dash about at breakneck speeds. Evidence of the author's lack of time sense shows up when he mentions a sailing ship going from London to Botany Bay in 100 days - a journey that would have taken 9 or 10 months at a minimum in 1805. The late Patrick O'Brien also seemed to have that problem.The novel finds Bartholomew Hoare finally coming to grips with the main French agent in London. The man had deluded various people with visions of grandeur if they supported Napolean, and had purchased other people's services with gold. The spymaster is a bit inept, and things start to come apart in his organization when Hoare sets the crew of the Royal Duke on the man's trail. The man kidnaps Hoare's new wife and their adopted child, and tries to toy with Commander Hoare instead of killing him - a dangerous mistake. The royal family is shown in an unfavorable light. There are also comments on the attitudes towards lower classes. When a woman's maid is raped and murdered, it is brushed aside by a comment that "she was only a servant." Overall, it could have been a better novel. The plot is good, but at points the author rambles and digresses. He seems to go into side details when they are not needed, and tries to throw in too much nautical jargon. He also repeats jokes - something that is amuzing the first time tends to get stale with constant retelling (the author must have been insufferable at parties). He makes the assumption that an admiral who was promoted up through the various ranks would be unfamiliar with the process. He also gets a bit surreal in a final chase through underground passageways. As in the other novels, a map would have been helpful.
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5: His last and best work
Commander Bartholomew Hoare enjoys being a naval officer who predominately uses his skills and that of his crew on land, which allows him time with his wife and child. His idyllic time ends when his superior Admiral Abercrombie orders Hoare to find missing sensitive documents taken from London's Admiralty House. Hoare knows that an inside traitor had to have stolen the documents. He makes inquiries, but soon finds his work endangers his beloved family as an unknown assailant kidnaps them to blackmail Hoare into failing on his mission. Treason threatens to topple the government, but Hoare now must choose between saving his family or saving his country unless the unconventional "sailor" can figure out some other path that rescues both. The third and final Hoare historical mystery is a great homage to the late Wilder Perkins. The story line is filed with action as Hoare struggles between his conflicting dilemmas. Hoare remains heroic and the appearances of real people add to the Regency era background of the novel. This novel and the previous two books are some of the best early nineteenth century stories of the past decade and worth searching for and then reading. Harriet Klausner
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