This tale is a departure from the usual fare of derring-do, perils and thrills on the high seas in wartime that is the hallmark of Douglas Reeman's novels. It is centered around Philip Vivian, a World War II veteran of the Royal Navy whose love and affinity for the sea has made it difficult for him to wholly adjust to living under the strictures of life in late 1950s postwar Britain. As a way of making a living, he had been taking tourists on seasonal trips along the shore and out at sea in his motor yacht, the Seafox. But this in itself is not enough to stave off the looming prospect of having to sell his beloved Seafox and face bankruptcy. Vivian leaves Torquay (where Seafox is moored) and goes to the R.N.V.R. Club in London --- of which he is a paying member --- and chances upon an old wartime comrade, Feliz Lang, whom Fortune has clearly smiled upon. He puts to Vivian "a profitable --- if legally dubious --- proposition" to carry out a series of smuggling jobs (involving the shipment of foreign currency from the travel agency in which Lang has a major interest) across the Channel to France. Just a couple of smuggling jobs and Vivian's debts would be paid in full. A merry adventure, no less. Or so it seemed at face value. For there is much more to Felix Lang and his associates at the travel agency for which he has worked for many years than meets the eye. Consequently, Vivian "finds himself trapped in a treacherous web of violence and crime, dangerously torn between his stubborn sense of past loyalties and his duty to a society he has always despised."

For any reader in search of a understated thriller that packs a punch, "High Water" fits the bill handsomely.

Sloppy, clumsy, incompetent writing.
The characters have no depth, their actions are illogical, their feelings have to be explained in plain words because there is no skill to suggest anything, and even the word choice is frequently very unfortunate.
Nor is the plot anything special to make up for the prose quality. The hero gets pushed around - there are some failures - the mission only progresses because he takes it on himself to disobey orders and choose a better course of action - then finally the heroic hero heroically takes over the whole enterprise, which is instantly crowned with success.
Really, this thing about disobeying orders is in such demand with the adventure writers, one wonders that there was any discipline in the Navy at all. But then, obviously the adventure writers are lying embroidering.
I love naval fiction in general, but that's the only reason for my getting through this to the end.

A good but not great 3 Stars

The name of the book is a description of the main character. We follow 16 year old Richard Bolitho, a midshipman, aboard the vessel Gorgon as they are tasked to look into and report on the slave trade activity on the African coast.

At times, the book was exciting as there were several good battle scenes. Unfortunately, the fact this volume is so slim (160 pages to be exact) the battle scenes are over rather quickly. This is a problem with this book as a whole. The story is condensed and the scenes move so fast, you are hardly able to appreciate the story.

That said, the character of Richard Bolitho is well developed. While I won't rush to read the next book, it is certainly on my to read list.

The Blackwood Saga continues. Captain Jonathan Blackwood, a Royal Marine officer, has his baptism of fire fighting the Turks at Gallipolli. Severely wounded, he is evacuated to Britain, where he recuperates in a specially arranged rest home for wounded servicemen (in peacetime, the building had served as the residence of a wealthy landowner; with the coming of war, he lent it out to the government). Once fully recovered, Captain Blackwood is given a command in Flanders on the Western Front. There he is exposed to the full fury of the war's ugliness. Blackwood is one of those "fighting officers" who prides himself on sharing the hardships of his men.

Reeman has created a character in Captain Blackwood who --- by his dedication to duty, while battling his own mounting fears and doubts --- will endear himself to the reader --- as he did to me.

Here is a Second World War novel of epic proportions. A British naval officer (Lieutenant Ralph Trewin), recovered from wounds received during the Battle of Crete, arrives at his new assignment on a gunboat at the Singapore station. The date: November 1941. His commanding officer is a hard-nosed martinet, a stickler for doing things by the book. Their relationship proves to be a fractious one. But with the coming of war in the following month, both men are forced to work more closely together under considerable stress as the Japanese advance down the Malay Peninsula and threaten Singapore itself.

The author has made a well-paced, heart-stopping novel that will have the reader turning the pages, anxious to see what happens next. Yes, it is that intense.