Blue at the Mizzen

London: HarperCollins, 1999. 1st. hardback. Very good 1st, clean and unclipped d/j (slightly marred by residue of price stickers); red clothbound boards very good, gilt titling on spine bright. Pages crisp and unmarked.. 8vo (230 x 150 / 9"" x 6""). 20th book in Patrick OÕBrianÕs highly acclaimed series of lucky Jack Aubrey and his best friend Stephen Maturin, part shipÕs doctor, part secret agent. The novelÕs stirring action follows on from that of The Hundred Days. NapoleonÕs hundred days of freedom and his renewed threat to Europe have ended at Waterloo and Aubrey has finally, as the title suggests, become a blue level admiral. He and Maturin have Ð at last Ð set sail on their much postponed mission to Chile. Vivid with the salty tang of life at sea, OÕBrianÕs writing is as powerful as ever whether he writes of naval hierarchies, night-actions or the most celebrated fictional friendship since that of Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson. Blue at the Mizzen also brings alive the sights and sounds of revolutionary South America in a story as exciting as any OÕBrian has written.