Double cross,love,bravery,intrigue and comeupance in the lighthouse service and Wales.

This book is actually two stories in one, The Captain of the Caryatid and The Cruise of the Commissioner, and is set around a lighthouse supply boat,the Caryatid, in the Welsh port of Porth Ardur. Things are running smoothly for the ship, her crew and captain Septimus Macready until a new harbour master is installed. The new harbour master,James Saint John Stanier, is young, ambitious, and wants change as he strives to make a name for himself in this small backwater. He viewss Macready as a major stumbling block in his way.

In many ways the book is a simple clash of personalities and doublecross, with a little love and infidelity thrown in for good measure but it the nautical background that gives it a slightly different perspective. The nautical knowledge appears generally very accurate although I did find myself having a small quibble with one minor part of it based on my own experiences.However, I found the main characters in particular somewhat stereotypical, with older and slightly overweight, bluff but upright Macready taking the more youthful, cocksure and sly upstart Stanier. That said the minor characters were far more intesting although I did feel that maybe the author struggles with female characterisation a little.

The first book I found rather slow and a bit like a school history lesson with an ending that was pretty predictable but then it was the first book of two so that is understandable. However, once the author had set the groundwork he built upon it nicely with the second story which had various twists and turns along the way. Again the ending was predictable, a little chintzy maybe, but how we got there was less so.

Personally I found the book interesting, I cannot recall ever reading another book based on this part of nautical history, and enjoyable, its worth persevering with the first story to reach the second,but overall lacked a little something to make it truly memorable. ( )