The Power & the Glory, the third book in William C. Hammond's Cutler Family Chronicles, finds Richard Cutler returning to naval service after a long stint ashore, tending to his family business and expanding his brood. But, with a quasi-war with France interrupting American trade in the late 1790s, the fledgling U.S. Navy has need of experienced officers ... and Cutler, who served with John Paul Jones during the Revolutionary War, finds his experience in demand.

He soon finds himself serving as a lieutenant on the USS Constellation, a new Baltimore-built frigate, while his close friend Agreen Crabtree takes a post on her sister ship, the Boston-built USS Constitution. And I must confess, in a genre dominated by the exploits of the British navy, it's exhilarating to spend some time onboard those historic American ships! (The Constitution, of course, is still an active Navy post, and I have toured the ship at its home port in Boston. I've more frequently toured the Constellation, moored in the Inner Harbor at Baltimore, but despite a persistent public perception, it is not the surviving 1797 frigate but a sloop of war built in 1854 in Virginia using some materials from its namesake, which had been broken up the previous year.)

Besides the battles at sea that are part and parcel of any nautical adventure, Cutler also participates in negotiations with Toussaint L'Ouverture, a former slave and leader of the Haitian independence movement. As the story unfolds, L'Ouverture is embroiled in the War of Knives with Andre Rigaud, leader of an opposing mulatto faction, for the fate of Saint-Domingue. France is backing Rigaud, so of course the U.S. favors L'Ouverture; Britain's allegiance fluctuates, although Britain is at this time a stronger friend to the United States than Revolutionary France, its erstwhile ally from the American Revolution, is under Napoleon. There's also a dramatic raid on the harbor of Grand-Bourg, on the island of Marie-Galante in the French West Indies, to forestall privateering in the region.

When not busy with naval matters, Cutler provides readers with a glimpse of life ashore, both in New England and the sugar-cane islands of the Caribbean. In his personal life, he also must contend with the ongoing fallout from his decision to rescue a former lover from Revolutionary France and settle her in close proximity to his wife and family in Massachusetts.

Hammond has a knack for historical writing, and it's fascinating to watch as the new nation finds its place on the world stage -- both as an economic force to be reckoned with and a naval power. His prose puts readers on a ship's quarterdeck, a sandy beach or other settings with his characters, and the action is fraught with peril. He also sprinkles his fiction with realistically drawn figures from history, which adds weight to the Cutler family's actions.

Significant time has passed between each book in the series so far, so I have to wonder if Richard Cutler will continue as its protagonist or if he will eventually hand the spotlight over to a son or nephew. In any case, I feel like I'm in for the long haul; there are three more books in the series so far, the most recent published in 2021, and I'm not sure if more are on their way.