Our hero Marty is now a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and he still runs a gang of spies and special operatives who do the British government's bidding in its ongoing war against France. And, as has been thoroughly evidenced in the first two books of Christopher C Tubbs' The Dorset Boy series, the youngster is exceptional at everything he does.

Given command of a ship while just 17, he almost immediately engages in a three-to-one battle against French ships and of course defeats them all in record time, with almost no casualties among his crew. He then goes straight to The Hague and, single-handedly, destroys the French consulate ... even though they knew he was coming and had set a trap. He then sails to Rotterdam and easily captures a pair of spies, meanwhile adding arsonist, interrogator, torturer, land management expert and proficient dog trainer to the litany of job titles at which he excels.

His travels take him to Holland and France, Madagascar and India, and he carries out successful missions in each of them. Although young, he marries and becomes a noble. His wealthy bride, although just 20 years old and already a widow, has an exceptional degree of influence over Marty's naval superiors.

His band of followers are also supremely gifted and loyal to a man. A group of Basque nationals among them even demonstrate a native war cry that seems capable of extricating them from any sticky situation that Marty himself cannot overcome.

In one encounter, Marty, in company with a second ship, defeats an attack by 20 enemy pirate ships off the coast of Madagascar. The whole encounter takes less than six pages. In fact, the two vessels managed to destroy most of the pirate ships plaguing the east coast of Africa while taking very few losses themselves. They even attract the attention of a massive shark who follows them for the plentiful food they send to the bottom.

Another chapter pits Marty and his small band of followers against a well-armed column of French soldiers transporting a stockpile of munitions. Ordered to follow them until reinforcements (led by none other than Arthur Wellesley) arrive, Marty instead manages to destroy the convoy.

I can tell that Tubbs is having a lot of fun writing this series, and his enthusiasm translates to the page. I can't help but root for Marty, I can't help but enjoy his adventures. But I wish constantly that some careful editor had given him some guidance, encouraged him to make his protagonist a little less superhuman and, of course, proofread the material to clean up some of the many errors.

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