Author:Alexander Kent
If you like Patrick O'Brian and C. S. Forester, you will love this gripping collection of swashbuckling maritime tales from multi-million copy seller Alexander Kent - guaranteed to keep you hooked!
'One of our foremost writers of naval fiction' - THE SUNDAY TIMES
'A rattling good tale...Alexander Kent captures the ethos of Nelson's navy as well as any writer before or since.' -- ***** Reader review
'Riveting' -- ***** Reader review
'Could not put it down' -- ***** Reader review
'Fantastic book by an outstanding author' -- ***** Reader review
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1773: Midshipman Bolitho's ship, the Gorgon, is laid up for refit, and he is allowed home for Christmas.
Bolitho, now seventeen, returns to his family in Falmouth, and soon discovers that all is not well in Cornwall. There are rumours of an increase in smuggling, even witchcraft, and when a murdered man is found near the Bolitho house, ugly rumour becomes reality. Wrecking, the most savage of all crimes, is a further cause for alarm.
Only a small and agile man-of-war can be of use against such restless enemies. To Falmouth comes one such vessel, the Avenger, and thoughts of a carefree leave are quickly forgotten, especially when Bolitho learns the name of the Avenger's commander...
Three midshipman Bolitho novellas are included in this one omnibus volume. Bolitho's adventures continue in Band of Brothers.
The brilliance of Enigma is that it gives readers the sense of being contemporary with its characters and then leads them on a dark journey of discovery to arrive at another of the Second World War's blackest horror stories, one not fully admitted until half a century later... Altogether top-class stuff. Peter Millar
—— The TimesEnigma totally gripped me
—— Sunday TimesAfter the resounding success of his first novel, Fatherland, the question was what would Robert Harris do for an encore? This is his resounding answer
—— Mail on SundayExtraordinarily good... undoubtedly the best thriller of the year, and perhaps of several years to come
—— Evening StandardI finished the book regretful it had ended, and full of wonder at this extraordinary world, people and achievements it evoked
—— ObserverBlends carefully researched fact with brilliantly realised fiction... a compulsive page turner until its surprising secrets are finally decrypted
—— Daily MailA first class plot... the characters steadily evolve and deepen. Out of wartime Cambridge and Bletchley lurches the computer age
—— Daily TelegraphThe brilliance of Enigma is that it gives readers the sense of being contemporary with its characters and then leads them on a dark journey of discovery to arrive at another of the Second World War's blackest horror stories, one not fully admitted until half a century later... Altogether top-class stuff.
—— Peter Millar , The TimesBeautiful...Farndale's elegant prose, his storytelling ability and the wise tolerance with which he views...his characters lend his exhilarating novel a tenderly redemptive afterimage.
—— Jane Shilling , Sunday TelegraphIt makes exhilarating reading, all the better for its satirical edge.
—— The TabletLove, terrorism, plane crashes, Passchendaele, religious visions... The highest compliment one can pay Farndale... is that the material is so well marshalled that the narrative unfurls without strain....beautifully done.
—— Mail on SundayPhilosophically ambitious and deftly crafted, Nigel Farndale's novel has one leg planted in the trenches of the First World War and the other placed sure-footedly in the present...perspicacious observations of human behaviour... beautiful.
—— Country LifeA constantly engaging and witty novel from a tremendously clever writer.
—— TelegraphPlausiby drawn....strong central characters, interesting subplots and well-sketched minor characters.
—— TLSAs idiosyncratic as it is ambitious...given shape and purpose by a true literary craftsman. The book both keeps you reading and makes you think.
—— Sally Cousins , Sunday TelegraphI drank in Nigel Farndale's The Blasphemer in huge lungfuls, and mourned it when it was finished. For anyone who loved Saturday, Atonement or Birdsong, this is the generational novel at its best.
—— Mail on Sunday