The War Chest

Unfortunately, this book isn't as good; the writing of the sea battles is abbreviated and unengaging. I've given the book three stars, though, because there's a pretty good plot twist in the middle of the book. Too bad Porter Hill doesn't do more with it.

As it is, Horne & Company are sent on a secret mission to intercept a French ship and capture a supposed treasure chest. Or are they? Luckily, this book is pretty short, so the shortcomings of the narrative are blown by pretty quickly.


A Poor Imitation Is Not Flattery   May 8, 2001
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

I would have to say that "The War Chest" is about the worst example of an 18th Century set maritime adventure that I have ever had the misfortune to purchase. Forester and O'Brien are in no danger of being eclipsed by Porter Hill. By the time I reached page 73, (no mean feat,) I had determined the book to be unreadable.

On page 58, during a pitched sea battle, our hero, Captain Horne, pauses to wonder about what his next assignment is going to be.

On page 64, after achieving a victory over two enemy ships, our hero asks himself why one has surrendered and is being abandoned and the other is not fleeing-but the author apparantly kept the answers to those questions to himself.

The last straw-this book is set in 1761; yet page 72-73 finds Babcock,the American character, reminiscing about how if he had stayed in Ohio he would probably have been gentry-in Ohio-in 1761.Mr. Porter, please, crack a history book now and then! A white settler in the Ohio country in 1761 would be lucky to not be hair on a lodge pole, let alone gentry. It was atg this point that I gave up.

This book appears to have been inadequately researched, poorly conceived, contrived and written barely at a juvenile level.