Hornblower in the West Indies

It is the 1820s, and Britain is at peace. With no enemy to fight and no conflict to join, Horatio Hornblower may be in danger of growing bored. However, as with other installments across this sprawling saga, he soon finds plenty to occupy him, as pirates, conspirators, and slave traders still plague the seas around the Caribbean.

After a number of prequels and some back-and-forth leaps through time, the ninth Hornblower novel finds us back on track. It's six years after the previous chronological installment in the series — 1946's Lord Hornblower, set in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo — and fifteen years after 1953's Hornblower and the Atropos, which opens on the funeral of Admiral Nelson. There is still plenty of life left in the old sea dog yet and plenty for fans of the series to enjoy.

Creator C. S. Forrester was a versatile writer, with plenty of successes to his name, but it is the vast richness of the Hornblower novels that have arguably held the most enduring appeal for fans across the world.