The Halfhyde Adventures #1 -Halfhyde at the Bight of Benin

Ithaca, New York, U.S.A.: McBooks Press, Inc., 2004. First Printing . Trade Paperback. Near Fine. 5 1/2" x 8 1/2. Wilkinson, Norman - Cover Painting. 223 Pages. The first of 15 books in the Halfhyde Series. Originally published in 1974 as Beware, Beware the Bight of Benin. Cover painting is of a River Class Destroyer at Speed by Wilkinson 1907. Tight, bright book with no marks or stamps and a faultless interior. Its the 1890s. Royal Navy lieutenant St Vincent Halfhyde finds himself out of favor with the Navy and on half-pay ashore when he is summoned to the Admiralty. His mission: to sail to the Bight of Benin in West Africa and spy on the not-so-secret Russian presence there. As a Russian speaker who is familiar with Benin, Hallhyde is confident he's the man for the job -- until he runs into Admiral Prince Gorsinski, cousin of the Czar and Halfhyde's former jailer. Aided only by an eager midshipman and a company of Russian mutineers, Halfhyde must face flogging, malaria, and the smothering embrace of a former lover to foil Gorsinski and seize the day for Britain. The author served on various British war ships during World War 2. Afterwards, he concentrated on writing, publishing more than 80 books. Halfhyde novels are widely read in Britain however this is the first trade papeerback edition of the series in the U.S.