A review by juliasilge
The Fortune of War by Patrick O'Brian

4.0

Another great installment from the Aubrey-Maturin series. Here the War of 1812 has broken out and we find Aubrey & Maturin prisoners captured by the Americans. A good chunk of the book takes place in Boston, crawling with American-allied French, where Maturin deals with enemy French spies and runs into the love of his life, but there are still a couple of very exciting naval battles. I was struck in this book by the violence and ubiquity of death, both at sea and on land. Death in these books is sometimes casual and sometimes tragic, but there is plenty of it. This book is again so, so funny and delightful and gripping. I was reading part of it waiting for a doctor's appointment and I was so engrossed that I literally started and couldn't quite remember where I was when they called my name.