Take, Burn, or Destroy

Adventures of Charles Hayden, Book 3

By: S. Thomas Russell

Narrated by: Nick Boulton

1794, the height of the French Revolution - Charles Hayden sets off aboard the ill-fated HMS Themis with orders to destroy a French frigate sailing from Le Havre and to gather intelligence from a royalist spy. On discovering French plans for an imminent invasion of England, Hayden must return to Portsmouth to give warning before it’s too late. But the enemy has been lying in wait for him, and so begins a dangerous chase out into the Atlantic and into the clutches of a powerful French squadron. After a thwarted attempt to masquerade as French sailors, Hayden and his officers are taken prisoner. A shipwreck following a storm and a case of mistaken identity befall Hayden and his men, as they try in desperation to escape in order to warn the Lords of the Admiralty. Failure will mean the invasion of England - and the guillotine for Hayden.

This book was originally published in the United Kingdom under the title Take, Burn, or Destroy.

©2012 Sean Russell (P)2013 W.F. Howes

wasted a third of the book

1 third of the book was wasted on his relationship with his girlfriend. it was so bad I skipped parts of the story

A great adventure story

This is book three in the Hayden Series. Captain Charles Hayden is the son of a British Post Captain and a French mother. Hayden is fluent in French as he spoke it all his life. The time of the story is during the French Revolution with England and France at war again.

Hayden’s orders was to take the HMS Themis to a spot off the French coast to met a spy and then get the message immediately back to the Admiralty. The message was that the French have a naval fleet and 100,000 soldiers to invade England. The HMS Themis is captured after a daring chase and the French 79 gun ship runs aground while being chased by two British Naval Ships. The book has lots of sea action both from ship to ship battles as well as with storms at sea. Lots of suspense as the French thinks Hayden is a French Royalist that has gone over to the British. This is an excellent sea faring adventure.

I understand that Russell wrote Sci-fi/fantasy novels under pen names and going into historical seafaring adventure novels in new to him. Nick Boulton did a good job narrating the story.

A+++ Age of Sail

I love Captain Hayden. I love Nick Bolton. So this audio book was a perfect storm of literary Age of Sail goodness. The characters are all so colorful and wonderful, and Mr. Russell's seamanship is exemplary. He makes you feel as though you are standing on the quarterdeck right with Hayden, grapeshot whizzing by your ears. I also really enjoyed the cuts to the drama going on in the Carthew family on shore, it added even more dimension to Hayden's trials at sea.

I wish they'd put a cool cover on this copy tho! I love looking at the pretty ships and dramatic battle scenes on my player, lol.

keeps you gesting

could not put down like the storyline of the outsider working his way through bias and hostility and lies with truth and patriotism to protect freedom and righteousness

More Soap Opera Material

Is there anything you would change about this book?

This book was filled with material that may have made a good soap opera, with a lot of mundane conversation between sisters and suitors. This took up such a large part of the book, that it detracted greatly from it.

Would you be willing to try another book from S. Thomas Russell? Why or why not?

I will read the next book in the Hayden series because the first two were so good. However, another similar effort to this one, would make it my last.

What about Nick Boulton’s performance did you like?

Boulton did an excellent job at making the characters easy to distinguish.