This, the earliest of Hammond Innes's sea stories is a fairly typical WWII adventure story, with a pair of fairly ordinary Englishmen thwarting the nefarious designs of Nazi spies. It was written, however, during the very earliest weeks of the war and is extraordinarily prescient; the threat to s...
Really strong plot line to this book, writing style can seem a little old-fashioned compared to modern day thrillers but it still worked well enough for me. The only criticism I would really point out is Innes' clumsy dialogue, especially when he attempts to write in cockney for one of the main c...
The Strode Venturer shares many of the elements of Solomon's Seal , a failing shipping line operating in isolated territories, a feud between members of a family an exotic island setting and a group of people seeking to gain their independance form a government they see as oppressive. The Strode...
It was a solid 3.5 stars in my opinion so I rounded up to 4 stars. The writing style and the story itself are reflective of a British author and post-World War II Europe respectively. The intrigue surrounding a haul of Nazi gold that was hidden away in the Italian Dolomites brings together a pr...
Reading this Hammond Innes novel immediately after Golden Soak reveals that by the latter part of his career Innes had hit on a formula. Take a middle aged Englishman with no ties, produce an attractive younger woman in need of some help, set up an issue of survival in an exotic location and weav...
A sailing yacht, crossing the English Channel at night, is nearly run down by the Mary Deare: an aging freighter seemingly abandoned but still under power. The yachts men are small-time salvage divers, and one (dreaming of a contract with her owners, and a check from their insurers) climbs aboard...
I am surprised this book is not better known, because it is not only Hammond Innes's most complex and literary book, but an excellent novel in any company. It is concerned with the origins of man and with early man's similarities with his modern counterpart, and has a troubled father-son relation...
"Attack Alarm" is one of Hammond Innes early works. Published in 1941 it was written when he was assigned to an anti-aircraft artillery unit during the Battle of Britain at RAF Kenley (RAF airbase) in 1940. So to say that this novel has the "ring of authenticity" would be an understatement. I am ...
This book farted in my mouth in the first chapter. It spent a few chapters trying to convince me that I was actually enjoying a nice ice cream sunday, but by about chapter 5 there was no doubt that the taste in my mouth was indeed fart.The front cover makes promises that "she was beautiful and d...
I am so glad I picked up this book. The attention to detail is amazing, and it is obvious that the author has experienced what he is writing about. As the setting was so well described and the content so interesting I didnt realise until quite near the end that I was slightly confused as to wha...
