Although I enjoyed certain elements in the first two books in Michael Aye's Fighting Anthonys series, the flaws -- foremost among them a wooden hand at dialogue and a major character's genre-bending mystic powers -- compelled me to place the third and fourth books in a box where they gathered dust for several years. Finally, I have dusted them off and given them a long-overdue try.

And, although there are still problems, I must say Barracuda, the third book in the series, is much improved. Dialogue, for instance, is less stilted than it was, reading much more like natural conversations.

The basis for this series is an interesting one: Aye, a veteran of the U.S. Navy, writes from the perspective of the British navy during the Revolutionary War; in other words, he has taken the losing side.

The protagonists, Lord Admiral Gil Anthony and his half-brother, Lt. Gabe Anthony, in Barracuda are stationed in Florida and are fighting Rebel privateers -- in particular, the titular Barracuda, the captain of which has a personal vendetta against the British and is sinking, rather than capturing, his prey in a bloodthirsty spree along the coast.

That leads to some dramatic battles but, while this book is better than my memory of the preceding two, it still needs a steadier hand at the helm.

Among the remaining flaws is a slipshod approach to proofreading. Too many spelling and grammatical errors made it into print, and that's annoying. Take for example a passage where a fisherman watches a barracuda "as he bit the snapper into," rather than "in two." Or the scene where an admiral decided to "partial out" his midshipmen, rather than the correct "parcel out." Or frequently substituting "loosing" for "losing." Or repeated uses of "damnable sodimite" in a side plot about a drunken brawl ashore.

That brawl, by the way, leads to a civil trial in which Lt. Anthony seeks to persuade a tavern owner to testify on a midshipman's behalf; when the barkeep refuses, citing his fear of reprisals, Anthony quickly offers to buy a half share of the bar and provide his uncle's services to protect the barman and his family. That should take Uncle Dagan out of the story, since he can't really continue serving on Anthony's ship if he's providing round-the-clock protection on land, but no, he's right back in the thick of things by the next scene. (Also, Aye neglected to include the barman's testimony in the trial, so the bargain was unnecessary anyway.)

The book also suffers from awkward writing, which a good editor might have improved. As an example, this run-on sentence: "The whine of a ball made Gunnells wince as it flew past him striking the helmsman creating a third eye in the unlucky seaman's head." Or this fumbling attempt at eroticism: "He had been dreaming of swimming in a warm pool with Faith ... nude. Then Dagan woke him. Damme, he thought, this type of dream hadn't happened before and to be awakened before ... ah." Or this cumbersome battle scene:

Gabe found himself being attacked by two people; one was a mulatto woman who must have been the wife of the man attacking him with a cutlass. Suddenly in desperation, as Gabe was winning the battle with the man, the woman bare-handedly grabbed Gabe's sword. Without thinking he snatched the weapon back slicing open the woman's fingers, severing tendons and arteries. The sight of his deed caused Gabe to become sickened as the woman fell to the deck screaming, trying to staunch the blood flow with useless hands.

Seeing his wife's ruined hands, the enraged husband began his attack anew, only to be shot through the center of his chest.

An editor also would have helped fix Aye's frequent misuse of commas and apostrophes.

I didn't realize this while reading previous books, but Michael Aye is the pseudonym of a husband-and-wife writing team, Michael and Patricia Fowler. While Michael has naval experience, his wife has worked largely in finance; she, according to their website, transcribes his handwritten manuscripts and edits them before sending them to their publisher. Perhaps another set of eyes on the text before printing would have helped.

I'm curious enough about the fate of the Anthony brothers to read the fourth book in the series, which I already have in my collection, but unless it significantly improves I doubt I'll seek out the rest of the Fighting Anthony novels, of which there are nine so far. (The most recent book, Andalucia, was published in September 2021 and, according to the blurb at Amazon, the American Revolution is still ongoing.)

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