Books like Ramage's Mutiny

If I could, I would give this novel six or seven stars as a rating. This is, in my opinion, the best yet of the Ramage naval series. It is full of naval adventure, an intriguing and imaginative plot and it is just a rollicking good tale.Upon Ramage's return from Martinique, where he captured a French convoy and several frigates, he is assigned an apparently hopeless and impossible task by the Admiral - the task that Ramage originally was ordered to deliver to the Admiral from the First Lord of the Admiralty. Two years before, the crew of HMS Jocasta, a frigate, mutinied, killed the captain and his officers and sailed the Jocasta to the Spanish Main along the northern coast of South America, where they turned the ship over to the Spanish authorities. The British Admiralty is absolutely intent on recovering the Jocasta and sent orders for the Admiral in Barbados to do this. The Admiral sent a senior and favored captain and his frigate, only to have the captain return saying that cutting out the Jocasta from the port of San Cruz is an impossibility given the fortifications and the nature of the harbor. Now the Admiral turns to Ramage still believing that the re-capture of the Jocasta is impossible, but hoping that Ramage's failure will cover the failure of the Admiral's favored captain.The novel actually begins with the story of a court martial of four mutineers who were taken off an American merchantman. The trial gives the background of the mutiny on the Jocasta and the reasons why the crew was driven to take such drastic measures. The book then follows Ramage and his crew in HMS Calypso to San Cruz. The story is fascinating and fantastic. As is true of all of Pope's novels in this series, Ramage is not only highly skilled in seamanship, but is uncannily lucky in everything he does, able to identify weaknesses in his enemies' actions and able to take advantage of those weaknesses on a moment's notice.