The Leeward Islands Squadron

Carlisle and Holbrooke Naval Adventures Series, Book 2

By: Chris Durbin

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

In late 1756, as the British government collapses in the aftermath of the loss of Minorca, and the country and navy are thrown into political chaos, a small force of ships is sent to the West Indies to reinforce the Leeward Islands Squadron.

Captain Edward Carlisle, a native of Virginia, and his first lieutenant George Holbrooke are fresh from the Mediterranean and their capture of a powerful French man-of-war. Their new frigate Medina has orders to join a squadron commanded by a terminally ill commodore. Their mission: a near-suicidal assault on a strong Caribbean island fortress.

Carlisle must confront the challenges of higher command as he leads the squadron back into battle to accomplish the Admiralty's orders.

Join Carlisle and Holbrooke as they attack shore fortifications, engage in ship-on-ship duels, and deal with mutiny in the West Indies.

©2018 Chris Durbin (P)2018 Tantor

Entertaining and intelligent

Well written book with adventures in the age of sail. What i like about this series, apart from the details and the understating of seamanship and humans, is the fact that its set in the 7 year war, mid 18th century - most other books of this style are set in the Napoleonic period. This is book two... i am hoping for the next one soon.

Carlisle & Holbrook Series Books 3-7 Needed

Wish Audible would be able to offer Books 3-7 of Chris Durbin’s Carlisle and Holbrook series.

Decent but not an overwhelming story

Pace and dialogue leave a little to be desire (for me) but author has done justice to the technical maritime setting of this book.

ship handling

Great naval adventure. Good team of Holbrook and Carlisle. Too bad tbe Villain is an English officer.

Can't put it down

As good as the best. I wish the rest of thexseries was on Audible. You will love this

Very exciting

Speaking as someone who was raised on Horatio Hornblower and who has practically memorized every book by Patrick O’Brian, I find this series by Chris Durbin to be equally entertaining. I really appreciate the details of ship handling and maneuver necessary to sail and fight a square-rigged ship. I also applaud the author’s decision to place his story in the historical context of the Seven-Years war, a period long overshadowed by novels of the Napoleonic wars but every bit as exciting. This novel, second of the series, had non-stop action and the descriptions of ship-ship combat were very exciting. The main characters in the series, Carlisle and his first Lieutenant, Holbrooke, are well-developed and evolving and are nicely complemented by Chalmers the Chaplain. Mr. Durbin’s novel is great but I have to say that I found the performance by Mr. Crossley the narrator to be very annoying. Compared to many of the excellent narrators I have heard on Audible, the voices he gives to the different characters are amateurish. For example, Carlisle is from Virginia yet the narrator gives him an accent that is indistinguishable from his English colleagues.

Interesting

The Leeward Island Squadron is the second book in a series by Chris Durbin. This historical novel takes place in 1758 during the Seven Year War between England and France. Chris Durbin is a historian so the book is full of historical information. This is an interesting story about the Royal Navy fighting the French Navy in the Caribbean.

I read this as an audiobook downloaded from Audible. The book is ten hours and fifty-seven minutes. Steven Crossley does a good job narrating the story.