Rainbow Reviews

BOOK BLURB:
Young First Lieutenant Daniel Leigh proves himself a man of courage, bravery, and the strength of his convictions in battling a "ghostly" presence on a Royal Navy ship.

BOOK REVIEW:
Emma Collingwood’s new novel Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased) is a wonderful story which this reviewer will rave over (and reread) for quite some time to come. One of those wonderful stories which captivates the reader from the first line, every chapter ends with a hook to catapult readers on to the next. I literally raced through, turning e-pages in the height of suspense.

Paranormal elements, plotting, and character are intricately and intriguingly interwoven in an excellent fashion. Period details are exact and accurate. This reviewer is eagerly anticipating further installments in Ms. Collingwood’s The Penny, Dreadful and Tarbottom Series, of which Lieutenant Samuel Blackwood (deceased) is but the beginning.

Daniel Leigh is a young sailor in the British Royal Navy in the Age of Sail. Son of a powerful Admiral and a beauteous mother, Daniel had been injured at sea and remanded to desk duty at his mother’s request. Now one of his good friends is appointed to take the First Lieutenantcy of the HMS Privet, a reputedly haunted ship: every First Lieutenant beginning with Samuel Blackwood has died ~ washed overboard or jumped ~ and the Captain has wasted away to a shadow of his former self. Daniel maneuvers himself into the position instead, and immediately discovers that the ship is indeed disturbed, perturbed, and yes, haunted. Additionally, he discovers that the Captain, John Meadows, serves under a cloud, captaining a ship half the size of his previous long-term command in the West Indies. He has been “banished” to the Privet because of scandalous ~ and untrue ~ accusations of moral misconduct, in an era when homosexuality is punishable by court-martial followed by flogging and hanging.

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