I discovered this book quite by accident while I was walking through the library looking for something else. I noticed a display on naval stories and picked this one up. It looked quite good and so I checked it out. I read the entire thing in two days. I decided to look online to see if the author had any other books and that is when I discovered that this was a part of a very long series about the main character and this book was number 8 in the series. I immediately reserved the first book from the library.I emailed the author and told him how much I enjoyed his book and much to my surprise he emailed me back the very next day. That was quite a nice thing for him to do.The book is set during the days of the great sailing ship's and the main character is an officer in the British Royal Navy. I am a huge fan of historical fiction and especially anything related to the Navy. The reading is not difficult as long as you can work your way around some naval terminology. I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it to anyone who loves historical fiction or naval stories. But start at the beginning of the series :) Although the book can be read as a stand alone novel without any back story necessary :)