I have noted in the past that the ongoing storyline pitting protagonist Lt. John Pearce against his antagonist, Captain Ralph Barclay, had been running too long without resolution. In The Perils of Command, the 12th book in the series by David Donachie, a lot of twisting threads start coming together.

Pearce has survived a plot by Admiral Sir William Hotham to dispose of him and other troublesome men in a lopsided mission to a piratical pasha in the Ottoman Empire. Now Pearce is returning to the Mediterranean fleet -- after stopping, of course, in Naples, where his lover -- Emily Barclay, Captain Barclay's estranged wife -- is staying with British ambassador Sir William Hamilton and his infamous wife, Lady Emma Hamilton. Barclay, meanwhile, has connived to get his ship reassigned to Hotham's fleet and, once there, managed to get leeway to seek his wife's whereabouts.

And that's not counting the various lieutenants, midshipmen and seamen who are also entwined in the plot, including several former smugglers, who are now serving unwillingly on the admiral's ship after being snared by Pearce. They, of course, bear a grudge.

Add to the intrigue the discovery that Emily Barclay is pregnant -- Pearce, not Barclay, is the father -- and there are new twists to navigate. Paternity aside, the law is on the husband's side and, if he discovers the pregnancy, he would have the right to seize the child.

Without saying anything more about the plot, I'll just note that one decisive moment in the book changes things irrevocably for John, Emily and Ralph. There will doubtlessly be repercussions in the next book. My enthusiasm for this series, after waning for a bit, is definitely on the rise.