Lamb in Command

by Kenneth Maynard

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312464355
• ISBN13: 9780312464356
• Release Date: January 1986
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Interesting read

This is the 3rd book in Kenneth Maynard's Matthew Lamb series (see my reviews of 'Lieutenant Lamb' and 'First Lieutenant Lamb'). These books are easy to read with the usual stuff--fights against the French and a love interest, or two. Maynard keeps the episodes, whether a fight or some minor incident on board, moving along at a good pace. This keeps the reader's attention and is very satisfying. All the episodes are interesting. The battle at the end is one of the best I have read. It's absolutely fantastic! I felt like I was right there! There is one major caution--there is a "Michael Jackson" incident. Thank goodness there is not much detail, but it is sickening nonetheless. I know such things happened, but I don't care to read about it. This and Lamb's many sexual encounters make this book inappropriate for the young. There is a fourth book in the series which is almost impossible to find. But if you can find it, get it and read it--you won't be disappointed. Unfortunately, Maynard passed away right after he finished it and many loose ends remain. Worst of all is the very end of the book, when a battle is near its end. We never find out what happens to our hero and his ship--an eternal cliffhanger.

A Royal Navy adventure

This novel is written somewhat along the same lines as other novels about young officers in the Royal Navy during the wars with France and Spain. Lieutenant Matthew Lamb has been having an affair with the Port Captain's wife, and Captain Mainwaring finds it convenient to send him to sea in command of a mail packet. With a firm belief of having a woman in every port, Lamb acquires another woman (niece of an Admiral) while stopping in Antigua, only to discover belatedly that she is a cousin of the woman back in Jamaica. Along the way, of course, there is some amount of naval action. Mail packets were not supposed to go after prizes, but when plums fall into your lap, the opportunity cannot be overlooked. So, Lamb has a woman in his life promising future romance, and some amount of prize money due when the mail packet reaches port. The story obiously leads into a sequel (or sequels) as some thing are left unfinished, including a lieutenant who wants to shoot him because of an alledged insult.