The 11th book in Alaric Bond's Fighting Sail series does not pick up where the previous book, Honour Bound, left off. In fact, there is a significant leap in time and circumstances, so it takes a moment to adjust to the new reality.

When Sealed Orders begins, Lt. Tom King is in command of HMS Hare, a 16-gun brig-sloop, and the events of Trafalgar are still fresh news in England. And, as has become customary in Bond's novels, there are adventures aplenty waiting for King and Hare just over the horizon.

King finds himself under the command of his former captain Sir Richard Banks, who is temporarily promoted to commodore, with his tiny fleet sailing south to escort a convoy -- under sealed orders, and with no idea what awaits them. But then there's a storm, and the badly leaking Hare is separated from the fleet. There's an enemy ship captured, lost and recaptured. There's also an Irish passenger with treasonous intent. Then, when Hare is deemed too badly damaged for repairs, King finds himself momentarily adrift -- until he's offered command of a captured French frigate, Mistral.

However, Rear Admiral Sir Home Riggs Popham, who greets Banks' restored fleet at the former Dutch outpost at the Cape of Good Hope, decides to launch a foolhardy attack on Spanish holdings in Buenos Aires, leaving Banks and his small assortment of ships to defend the outpost alone. Of course, the French come calling -- and in larger numbers than Banks can reasonably be expected to face.

Sealed Orders contains one of the most desperate naval actions I've read in recent memory. A handful of British frigates, ostensibly led by Commodore Banks but with King's Mistral in the lonely vanguard, face a formidable fleet of French frigates and a much larger line-of-battle ship. It's Mistral's job to disable and delay the enemy ships long enough for Banks and his supporting ships to come into combat range.

The action will not be without cost.

I have commented in several reviews how Bond's varied cast of characters is so mutable that you can never be certain a favorite member of the crew is safe from harm. That proves the case again here, when someone who has been with King through numerous adventures is suddenly and without warning killed in action. It's a testament to Bond's writing that it hurts to lose someone who feels like an old friend. Another character who is introduced in this book as a rake and a villain is pressed into King's crew and becomes a valued shipmate -- and his evolution by book's end is touching and a little bit sad.

I cannot express how much I love this series. I am grateful that several more books lie waiting to be read.

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