Review of Leopard

Leopard by Michael Aye

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The seventh book in The Fighting Anthonys series opens with a captain from Grand Cayman complaining to Vice Admiral Lord Gilbert Anthony about the audacious American privateer who sails right into Georgetown Harbor and takes the captain and others prisoner, and then ransoms their ships back to them, minus everything but their hulls. He dares to give them a certificate to show to other privateers exempting them from being taken again during the next forty-two days.
There is little Gil or the Royal Navy can do, since they are already stretched to the limit, but he sets sail with a small fleet to make life miserable for these American upstarts.

Captain Sir Gabriel Anthony finds himself betwixt wind and water, for overstepping his authority, risking his ship and men, in an adventure that took them far from the Caribbean. Vowing to ruin Gabe, Admiral Sir Winston Kirkstatter writes a scathing letter to the Admiralty, then sets sail aboard the prize warship Gabe captured, leaving Gabe to wait to see what his fate will be. In the meantime, Gil can’t afford to lose either Gabe or his men, so Trident is sent to Antigua for repairs. Along the way, they happen upon flotsam, dead bodies floating in the water, and the jury-rigged HMS Leopard, a vessel providing escort to a merchant convoy. At the time of the attack, those aboard Leopard didn’t know that Spain had declared war on England in support of her ally, France, who had joined with the Americans in their fight for independence. The Dons decimated the convoy and killed or wounded the more senior officers aboard Leopard.

Upon reaching Antigua, the crews of Trident and Leopard band together to staff the latter and Gabe is ordered to seek out his brother to let him know that the Dons are allied with the traitorous Americans. This information is then combined with news from the ransomed merchant captain about a fleet of French warships carrying 6,000 troops to aid the rebels in their fight and the growing meance of American privateers on the prowl. Gil and his officers seek out the enemy, but finding them isn’t an easy task in the Caribbean.

The story, which takes place in 1780, includes several nail-biting sea battles and an unsuspected dupe used by a spy, as well as a wedding and an appearance by Rear Admiral Lord Cornwallis. Two new lieutenants join the series: one is the son of a Scottish lord and a Creek princess; the other is a black naval officer, who is referred to numerous times before finally making his appearance halfway through the book. The resolution of Gabe’s quandary is deftly resolved with a twist of fate that has a profound effect on Admiral Kirkstatter.

Rather than a tale seamlessly woven together, Leopard is more a series of vignettes sewn together, which at times gives the story a disjointed feeling. It also disrupts the cohesive flow from one event to the next, making it hard for readers to connect with the characters. The book lacks a good proofing, which would have caught instances like “Shouting down to the gun deck, Gabe shouted to Lieutenant Bufford to be ready” (tells the reader twice that Gabe has to shout), or “Captain Davy, who’d had little more than a quick honeymoon with Ariel before weighing anchor”, (incomplete sentence), as well as occasional missing or misspelled words. (161 and 176, respectively)

The shining moments in the story are Michael Aye’s original poetry, which is presented at the beginning of each of the three parts of this book, and his depiction of the Great Hurricane of 1780, which is estimated to have been a Category 5 storm with winds in excess of 200 miles per hour. Not only do readers witness the storm while aboard the navy’s ships, but they also get to experience it from the perspectives of Gil’s and Gabe’s families and friends who go on a picnic the day the hurricane hits. The poem “Oh Blow You Hurricane” perfectly captures the mood of what transpires in the story.




View all my reviews