Frenzy of Merchantmen

by Brian Callison

1st edition Fontana 1978 paperback, vg+ In stock shipped from our UK warehouse

Genres: Thriller, Adventure

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 23, 2012

About the author

Brian Callison was a British novelist known for his best-selling thrillers and sea stories. Born in Manchester, England in 1934, he was educated at the High School of Dundee, and went to sea at the age of 16 as an apprentice with the Blue Funnel Line, sailing aboard cargo ships between ports in Europe and East Asia. Callison subsequently studied at Dundee College of Art in Scotland, and went into business. His first published novel, A Flock of Ships, appeared in 1970. In 2008 he completed a three-year appointment as a Fellow of The Royal Literary Fund at the University of Dundee, mentoring staff and students in all aspects of practical writing.
Callison died in Dundee on 5 February 2024, at the age of 89.

Reviews

[Steve Bender · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story of a secret British spy operation that the Royal Navy operates with old freighters. It is like "The Perils of Pauline" in that you careen from one disaster to another. It features a cynical, unwilling British captain who gets roped into an operation before he realizes how bad it is as he is twice pitted against the Soviets. Second in a series, but I hadn't read the first and didn't miss it in this story.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

A classic style of Cold War thriller that became the background to the newer hi-tech novels of the Tom Clancy style that came into later vogue. A lot more muscle, much less tech, and in this case with the ruder sort of British special operations forces engaged rather than the George Smiley crowd. Entertaining, I liked the main character (if you read these you will understand my reluctance to use the word hero!) and the rather outlandish almost comic book plot is fast moving.

[Brian Grouhel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brian Callison writes one heck of a sea story!

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I discovered BRIAN CALLISON, a British author of primarily nautical fiction, in October 2013 when I found a copy of A FLOCK OF SHIPS (see my review under that title). This was a British bestseller in 1970 and is now a cult favorite in the U.K. Recently I found two more novels by this outstanding author - A PLAGUE OF SAILORS (Brevet Cable #1) and A FRENZY OF MERCHANTMEN (Brevet Cable #2).

As I have not read or found all of Callison's many books, what I read so far deal with the British Merchant Marine an unusual topic to say the least. The two "Cable" books feature a fictional company called the British Mutual Steam Navigation Company that in reality is owned by the Royal Navy (secretly) and is headed by an Admiral. Cable is one of the senior officers aboard the supposedly nonmilitary merchant ships. However, these merchant ships can be outfitted with all kinds of military armament as needed.

Book 1 starts out with a commando raid in Scotland by Middle Eastern terrorists bent on stealing a particularly nasty strain of Anthrax B. Their goal, to poison a delivery of grain destined for Israel following a devastating earthquake. The grain was paid for Egypt. Whoa, potential bad karma could follow.

In Book 2, Cable and friends need to secure one their ships that has been impounded by the Russians in an East German port. To help rescue the ship, a group of Neo-Nazis are enlisted in the plot. The N-Ns goal is to overthrow the East German government. To gain their support, they are promised an invasion by a NATO task force (not gonna happen). Why is the ship so important? Because a thermonuclear (think hydrogen) bomb is built into one of the holds that could be dangerous to living things in Western Europe.

Brian Callison incorporates some humor into the stories. Cable in both books is reluctant and sometimes, weepy hero.

GO! BUY! READ!