Worrall: Not Patrick O’Brian, but worth reading

I just finished reading the first two books in the series by Jay Worrall , “Sails on the Horizon” and “Any Approaching Enemy.” Both are set during the Napoleonic Wars , specifically in the late 1790s.

They aren’t exactly Patrick O’Brian , but then what series could be? Worrall, though, is a decent writer whose ability to tell a story overshadows the occasional clichﾎ, in prose, character and plot device (killing off a truculent officer, for example).

And he is not only able to describe what life on British ships of the line might have been like, he can handle battle scenes as well – the 1798 Battle of the Nile , especially.

Plus, the love object that he introduces is more than a mere device: Penny Brown, a Quaker neighbor of Worrall’s protagonist, Charles Edgemont, proves to have one of the strongest personalities in either of the first two books.

And, surprise, one of the characters who shows up is none other than Jack Aubrey , the hero of O’Brian’s 20 (or so) Aubrey/Maturin novels.

You know what they say about imitation and flattery.

Below: “Sails on the Horizon” is the first in Jay Worrall’s novels about the British Navy during the Napoleonic Wars.

Random House photo