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Carlisle & Holbrooke Naval Adventures #7
Rocks and Shoals
With the fall of Louisbourg in 1758, the French in North America were firmly on the back foot. Pitt’s grand strategy for 1759 was to launch a three-pronged attack on Canada. One army would move north from Lake Champlain, and another smaller force would strike across the wilderness to Lake Ontario and French-held Fort Niagara. A third, under Admiral Saunders and General Wolfe, would sail up the Saint Lawrence, where no battle fleet had ever been, and capture Quebec.
Captain Edward Carlisle sails ahead of the battle fleet to find a way through the legendary dangers of the Saint Lawrence River. An unknown sailing master assists him; James Cook has a talent for surveying and cartography and will achieve immortality in later years.
There are rocks and shoals aplenty before Carlisle and his frigate Medina are caught up in the near-fatal indecision of the summer when General Wolfe tastes the bitterness of early setbacks.
Rocks and Shoals is the seventh of the Carlisle & Holbrooke naval adventures. The series follows Carlisle and his protégé George Holbrooke, through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American colonies in the 1760s.
Captain Edward Carlisle sails ahead of the battle fleet to find a way through the legendary dangers of the Saint Lawrence River. An unknown sailing master assists him; James Cook has a talent for surveying and cartography and will achieve immortality in later years.
There are rocks and shoals aplenty before Carlisle and his frigate Medina are caught up in the near-fatal indecision of the summer when General Wolfe tastes the bitterness of early setbacks.
Rocks and Shoals is the seventh of the Carlisle & Holbrooke naval adventures. The series follows Carlisle and his protégé George Holbrooke, through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American colonies in the 1760s.
- GenresHistorical Fiction
317 pages, Paperback
Published May 16, 2020
358 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Chris Durbin
15 books70 followersChris Durbin grew up in the seaside town of Porthcawl in South Wales. His first experience of sailing was as a sea cadet in the treacherous tideway of the Bristol Channel, and at the age of sixteen, he spent a week in a topsail schooner in the Southwest Approaches. He was a crew member on the Porthcawl lifeboat before joining the navy.
Chris spent twenty-four years as a warfare officer in the Royal Navy, serving in all classes of ship from aircraft carriers through destroyers and frigates to the smallest minesweepers. He took part in operational campaigns in the Falkland Islands, the Middle East and the Adriatic. As a personnel exchange officer, he spent two years teaching tactics at a US Navy training centre in San Diego.
On his retirement from the Royal Navy, Chris joined a large American company and spent eighteen years in the aerospace, defence and security industry, including two years on the design team for the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers.
Chris is a graduate of the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, the British Army Command and Staff College, the United States Navy War College (where he gained a postgraduate diploma in national security decision-making) and Cambridge University (where he was awarded an MPhil in International Relations).
With a lifelong interest in naval history and a long-standing ambition to write historical fiction, Chris has embarked upon creating the Carlisle & Holbrooke series, in which a colonial Virginian commands a British navy frigate during the middle years of the eighteenth century.
The series will follow its principal characters through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American Colonies in the 1760s. They’ll negotiate some thought-provoking loyalty issues when British policy and colonial restlessness lead inexorably to the American Revolution.
Chris now lives on the south coast of England, surrounded by hundreds of years of naval history. His three children are all busy growing their own families and careers while Chris and his wife (US Navy, retired) of thirty-seven years enjoy sailing their classic dayboat.
Chris spent twenty-four years as a warfare officer in the Royal Navy, serving in all classes of ship from aircraft carriers through destroyers and frigates to the smallest minesweepers. He took part in operational campaigns in the Falkland Islands, the Middle East and the Adriatic. As a personnel exchange officer, he spent two years teaching tactics at a US Navy training centre in San Diego.
On his retirement from the Royal Navy, Chris joined a large American company and spent eighteen years in the aerospace, defence and security industry, including two years on the design team for the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers.
Chris is a graduate of the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, the British Army Command and Staff College, the United States Navy War College (where he gained a postgraduate diploma in national security decision-making) and Cambridge University (where he was awarded an MPhil in International Relations).
With a lifelong interest in naval history and a long-standing ambition to write historical fiction, Chris has embarked upon creating the Carlisle & Holbrooke series, in which a colonial Virginian commands a British navy frigate during the middle years of the eighteenth century.
The series will follow its principal characters through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American Colonies in the 1760s. They’ll negotiate some thought-provoking loyalty issues when British policy and colonial restlessness lead inexorably to the American Revolution.
Chris now lives on the south coast of England, surrounded by hundreds of years of naval history. His three children are all busy growing their own families and careers while Chris and his wife (US Navy, retired) of thirty-seven years enjoy sailing their classic dayboat.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 6, 2020
A different locations
The adventures of a colonial post captain in the British Navy fighting the French in the St Lawrence and what became Canda.
The adventures of a colonial post captain in the British Navy fighting the French in the St Lawrence and what became Canda.
April 22, 2023
The previous book set up this one, establishing British naval presence in eastern Canadian waters. The focus is on Carlisle while Holbrooke is elsewhere, with the full official British push to knock the French out of Canadian soil.
The events are really dramatic and gripping, this is truly one of the most amazing fights in North American history and it was incredibly important for local and global history. What the world might have been like with a French Canada is something to ponder but it surely would have been very different to have a huge French empire rather than British.
But for some reason the book feels so restrained, calm and objective that the drama is reduced. Carlisle's "voice" is so analytical and detached most of the time it drains the events of their energy and excitement. So the story does not have the sense of drama it could and the book drags a bit to me.
The events are really dramatic and gripping, this is truly one of the most amazing fights in North American history and it was incredibly important for local and global history. What the world might have been like with a French Canada is something to ponder but it surely would have been very different to have a huge French empire rather than British.
But for some reason the book feels so restrained, calm and objective that the drama is reduced. Carlisle's "voice" is so analytical and detached most of the time it drains the events of their energy and excitement. So the story does not have the sense of drama it could and the book drags a bit to me.
July 8, 2023
With Lieutenant Holbrooke's promotion, the two lead characters Carlisle and Holbrooke, have been separated, their adventures occupying alternating books: for Rocks and Shoals, the focus is Captain Carlisle, American captain of a ship of the Royal Navy, navigating the treacherous waters of the St Lawrence River as part of the expeditionary force of General Wolfe against the French in Canada. So the novel exchanges the broad expanses of the ocean for the narrow passages of inland waterways, and ships acting as floating gun batteries alongside infantry assaults: it's a fascinating insight into an earlier version of combined arms warfare, with the engaging Captain Carlisle as our guide. As enjoyable as the earlier novels in the series.
February 12, 2024
A Future for Canada
The following text is a continuation of the previous Carlisle and Holbrooke adventure series. The stories are rich in historical detail, and the action is concentrated in the final chapters of the book. The series follows the journey of two men who risk their lives for British Canada and encounter danger and adventure along the way.
However, the author's heavy use of historical detail slows down the narrative's flow, causing the story to stagnate. This is where a skilled editor can assist the author in improving the story's readability.
Despite this, the series is both informative and entertaining, with compelling main characters that will leave you wanting more.
The following text is a continuation of the previous Carlisle and Holbrooke adventure series. The stories are rich in historical detail, and the action is concentrated in the final chapters of the book. The series follows the journey of two men who risk their lives for British Canada and encounter danger and adventure along the way.
However, the author's heavy use of historical detail slows down the narrative's flow, causing the story to stagnate. This is where a skilled editor can assist the author in improving the story's readability.
Despite this, the series is both informative and entertaining, with compelling main characters that will leave you wanting more.
January 7, 2021
If Montcalm had won the battle of Quebec.......
Would North Americans be speaking French today? Chris Durbin's story adds a new dimension by including many details about the navy's important role, such as charting the regional waters and using the French pilots. While the expulsion of Acadia did not occur on Carlisle's watch, readers might glean further insight by reading the poem Evangeline by Henry Longfellow.
A detail that confused this reader was on page 223 of the kindle version that refers to Lake Ottawa. I am wondering if he meant Lake Ontario?
Would North Americans be speaking French today? Chris Durbin's story adds a new dimension by including many details about the navy's important role, such as charting the regional waters and using the French pilots. While the expulsion of Acadia did not occur on Carlisle's watch, readers might glean further insight by reading the poem Evangeline by Henry Longfellow.
A detail that confused this reader was on page 223 of the kindle version that refers to Lake Ottawa. I am wondering if he meant Lake Ontario?
May 23, 2021
ANOTHER GOOD EFFORT by this author
For the captain who seemingly is always on the right side of history- here is another story that entertainingly takes you through a period of history rarely written about. SPOILER Alert! Once again a well researched and a cool story to boot dealing with events surrounding Quebec and Quiberion bay. I see some thubderheads on the horizon for our dear Cpt. Carlisle and the pain he may later experience in 1760 and beyond- but for now smooth and profitable sailing. When van we expect the sequel and what happened to Holbrooke
For the captain who seemingly is always on the right side of history- here is another story that entertainingly takes you through a period of history rarely written about. SPOILER Alert! Once again a well researched and a cool story to boot dealing with events surrounding Quebec and Quiberion bay. I see some thubderheads on the horizon for our dear Cpt. Carlisle and the pain he may later experience in 1760 and beyond- but for now smooth and profitable sailing. When van we expect the sequel and what happened to Holbrooke
September 6, 2021
And Again
I continue to enjoy Chris Durbin’s series of books. Living in Maine with a wife descended from French Canadians we often travelled to Quebec and always visit Isle D’Orleans, where her (soldier) ancestors are buried from the 17th Century. My first visit to Halifax was in a racing schooner “Freedom” gifted to the Naval Academy by Sterling Morton. Spent a wonderful summer along the Coasts of Massachusetts, Maine and Nova Scotia, racing and cruising. Durbin’s novels flesh out my direct knowledge and histories of those areas.
I continue to enjoy Chris Durbin’s series of books. Living in Maine with a wife descended from French Canadians we often travelled to Quebec and always visit Isle D’Orleans, where her (soldier) ancestors are buried from the 17th Century. My first visit to Halifax was in a racing schooner “Freedom” gifted to the Naval Academy by Sterling Morton. Spent a wonderful summer along the Coasts of Massachusetts, Maine and Nova Scotia, racing and cruising. Durbin’s novels flesh out my direct knowledge and histories of those areas.
October 16, 2023
Another excellent naval novel
Durbin doesn't disappoint in this seventh instalment of the tales of Carlisle and Holbrooke. Well written, fast paced and with descriptions that take you right into the action. The maps are helpful in visualising the story and the historical epilogue a firm link with the actual events. The accuracy of detail is informative but never dry. Wonderful reads.
Durbin doesn't disappoint in this seventh instalment of the tales of Carlisle and Holbrooke. Well written, fast paced and with descriptions that take you right into the action. The maps are helpful in visualising the story and the historical epilogue a firm link with the actual events. The accuracy of detail is informative but never dry. Wonderful reads.
February 16, 2021
Enjoyable and for the most part accurate
A good tale, and pretty accurate. A few inconsistencies, specifically that Colonel de Bougainville is called Comte. He was a Chevalier of the Order of St. Louis at the time, and was made Comte by Napoleon much later. Just a quibble, but worth noting.
A good tale, and pretty accurate. A few inconsistencies, specifically that Colonel de Bougainville is called Comte. He was a Chevalier of the Order of St. Louis at the time, and was made Comte by Napoleon much later. Just a quibble, but worth noting.
November 24, 2021
The battle for Quebec was a 3 year campaign waged by the British against the French for the control of most of French Canada. From the seige of Louisbourg to the seige of Quebec (Montcalm vs. Wolfe) the british navy succeeds in vanquishing the French. The pivotal battle takes place near Quebec city on the plains of Abraham where Wolfe is killed but his British army prevails.
May 1, 2022
A Wonderful Triumph for Durbin
I had moderate expectations going into this book, thinking that it’s just another in a series of books that yes, I have enjoyed, but little did I realize this would be quite a wonderful book in many ways. I really didn’t want it to end where did… Did you?
I had moderate expectations going into this book, thinking that it’s just another in a series of books that yes, I have enjoyed, but little did I realize this would be quite a wonderful book in many ways. I really didn’t want it to end where did… Did you?
October 31, 2022
more of the same!
More of the same rollicking adventure. But as always the intricate attraction to the details of sailing in that era are thrilling. Constantly shutting back and forth from text to chart being these stories completely alive. The epilogue correlation with history just completes an already full and grand adventure.
More of the same rollicking adventure. But as always the intricate attraction to the details of sailing in that era are thrilling. Constantly shutting back and forth from text to chart being these stories completely alive. The epilogue correlation with history just completes an already full and grand adventure.
March 21, 2023
First-rate series of novels. Highly recommended.
Knowledge of history, knowledge of sailing and the sea, and of strategy and tactics in the age of fighting sail are outstanding. Inserting two fictional characters into the mix and having them interact with real persons couldn’t have been easy, as I have reason to know!
Well done!
Knowledge of history, knowledge of sailing and the sea, and of strategy and tactics in the age of fighting sail are outstanding. Inserting two fictional characters into the mix and having them interact with real persons couldn’t have been easy, as I have reason to know!
Well done!
September 11, 2020
Another Great Chapter in the series
What I enjoy about this series, and this book in particular, is the way old characters move on and new characters are brought in. Its a refreshing change. Plus, the historical facts are never twisted too far.
What I enjoy about this series, and this book in particular, is the way old characters move on and new characters are brought in. Its a refreshing change. Plus, the historical facts are never twisted too far.
September 19, 2020
More good reads
Along with previous 6 books this one leads you to need to keep reading to be again caught up in the actions and varying lives of characters, look forward to book 8 +?
Along with previous 6 books this one leads you to need to keep reading to be again caught up in the actions and varying lives of characters, look forward to book 8 +?
August 24, 2020
Enjoyable read
This is as usual a fast paced good relaxing read covering a period of history that, all be it a speeded up timescale, was full of adventure. What's not to like.
This is as usual a fast paced good relaxing read covering a period of history that, all be it a speeded up timescale, was full of adventure. What's not to like.
April 20, 2021
Great Naval Action
As the series progresses it continues to be a great time frame. I have really enjoyed reading this historical fiction.
As the series progresses it continues to be a great time frame. I have really enjoyed reading this historical fiction.
August 31, 2021
less interesting to me because less of it takes place on the ocean and is more about the St Lawrence River / Seaway.
December 5, 2022
A Page Turner
Very enjoyable and a page turner at the battle for Quebec. I particularly like the fact the story follows actually events., such as Old Killick!
Very enjoyable and a page turner at the battle for Quebec. I particularly like the fact the story follows actually events., such as Old Killick!
September 2, 2023
Just another great read about the early history of the British navy and very good fiction interwoven into exciting battles and human interaction.
September 10, 2024
4.2 stars.
June 24, 2020
A bit to much “Surveying, navigation and fleet management “ for me.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews