It's been more than two decades since the last novel featuring Isaac Biddlecomb was published, more than 10 years since I last cracked open the most recent volume, All the Brave Fellows. Author James L. Nelson has been busy with other projects, many of which I have read in the meantime, and it seemed likely that the Revolution at Sea series featuring Biddlecomb had ended after five books.

And then The Falmouth Frigate appeared at my door, and it seemed like no time at all had passed.

The novel begins pretty much where the last one left off: Biddlecomb has fled British-occupied Philadelphia with the half-finished frigate Falmouth and a skeleton crew. He's taken refuge in Great Egg Harbor, a remote inlet along the New Jersey coastline, where he hopes to finish the ship sufficiently enough to reach a friendly shipyard.

Biddlecomb's right-hand man, Ezra Rumstick, has gone off on a mission with a handful of Falmouth men to find trees of sufficient size and shape to serve as temporary masts and spars. His erstwhile ally, Sgt. Angus McGinty, fled with the captured sloop Sparrowhawk with aspirations of becoming a privateer, but he ran afoul of the wrong vessel at sea. Biddlecomb's wife Virginia remains trapped with their son in Philadelphia, where a British officer appears enamored of her -- and may or may not be aware of her husband's position in the continental navy. Meanwhile, a large band of well-armed Jersey bandits has decided they want whatever goods are stored belowdecks in Falmouth, and they will fight to take the stranded vessel no matter what the cost.

With so many storylines to unravel, you might not be surprised that the book hardly seems to focus on Biddlecomb at all. Vast oceans of text are devoted to those subplots, the most interesting being McGinty, whose fortunes seem to turn on a dime, and Virginia, who seeks to gain valuable military information from her suitor but may end up providing him with secrets instead.

But it all comes back to Biddlecomb in the end, and lest readers fret at the lack of naval action through much of the book, rest assured the book doesn't end without a satisfying crash of cannonfire between Biddlecomb's tiny fleet and a powerful British warship.

Nelson is among my favorite authors in this genre, and while I've certainly enjoyed his more recent works, it's great to see him revisit an old series like this. Who knows, could Thomas Marlowe or Samuel Bowater be next?

[ visit James L. Nelson's website ]