Unlike most books by Douglas Reeman or his alter-ego, Alexander Kent, The Hostile Shore is not set in war-time. While Reeman usually sets his eye on World War II and Kent writes about the wars between England and France in the Age of Sail, this novel takes place a few decades after the end of WW2. Rupert Blair, a retired naval officer and a successful businessman, has hired a small ship to ferry him to a remote Pacific island close to the reef where, 20 years before, his family perished when they and others fled Singapore in a passenger launch that was subsequently lost at sea after a Japanese attack.

Now, he's hoping to find answers about their fate. Accompanying him on the trip is Gillian Bligh, an American journalist looking for a deep dive into a human interest story, and George Myers, a deep-water diver in his employ.

For his purpose, Blair has chartered the Queensland Pearl, an aging trade schooner built before World War I. Her captain, Vic Fraser, and native crew are along for the ride.

They find the reef-stricken wreck more quickly than they expected. However, they didn't anticipate that restless native tribesmen would suddenly become fed up with the white intruders on their island, that a mad missionary would have a secret plot up his sleeve or, most importantly, a massive storm would form out to sea. It's more than enough to complicate the venture.

The Hostile Shore is certainly tense in places, and Reeman knows how to write action. But this book -- which was written and published fairly early in Reeman's career -- is far less exciting than most of his work. Sea battles, the hallmark of most of his books, are entirely absent and, while the storm scenes are thrilling, the weather is not enough to carry the narrative.

There are other problems with the book. The two protagonists don't earn the desperate romance they share; nothing sparks it, they fall in love seemingly because they're the main characters and in close proximity. I guess it doesn't hurt that Gillian always seems to wear thin shirts and dresses that stick to her skin at the slightest provocation or, at the first hint of sweat, become tantalizingly sheer.

The reader also must endure the sort of casual racism and sexism that was so common to adventure novels in the early 1960s; fortunately, it's not overwhelming, but it is off-putting.

What saves The Hostile Shore is Reeman's deft hand at writing action scenes. And once the Queensland Pearl reaches its destination, there's plenty. It's not enough to make this one of my favorite Reeman books, but I'm still glad I read it. Just the once.