Age of Fighting Sail-- with a Christian Captain

I've just come across a relatively new series that makes the point of this blog:it is not about the genre of Christian fiction, but about genre fiction with Christian content.In this case, the Donland books by Perry Comer recounts the career of a British naval officer named Donland during the decades of off-and-on war between Britain and France climaxing with the Napoleonic conflict. It's a genre populated by heroes named Hornblower, Bolitho, Drinkwater and Aubrey. Donland, however, belongs in this blog because he is unapologetic Christian.When the fate of his ship and crew is in doubt, he prays, and when they survives, he credits God. Comer is a competent writer well versed in nautical affairs. The first book in the series is The Prize. Donland is just a lieutenant when his own ship captures a French frigate and he is given command of it with a small crew to sail across the Caribbean to the naval base at Antigua.There quickly develops a mystery about a boy found on board with a Black slave which is overheated and contrived, and romantic interest involving a passionate American woman who is also overheated. I'm having trouble pushing through the lengthy period ashore as the Donland's crew repair their vessel after a battle. The jury's still out, in other words, thou I'd be interested in other opinions. For better writing, in the Christian age of fighting sail sub genre, I do recommend Jay Worrall's books. They nicely blend naval action with the gentrified life in England in the Napoleonic era. The protagonist romances and marries a Quaker which makes for an amusing clash of cultures. Worrall is himself a Quaker and, like Comer, an American. But he started his series late in his life and has run out of steam , I'd say by book three or four. I hope he is still with us and recovers his earlier energy. As to the point of this blog, it is to highlight Christian content in genre fiction: thrillers, legal novels, mysteries, sports: whatever.

Wow! big gap since my first blog. Frankly,it was an exceedingly chaotic time for me. Now I'm back at.
I picked up a couple of Dean Koontz novels at a second hand store.Whispers and Winter Moon. But I can only read these one at a time; i.e., they are so intense I will take a break between the first and the second. Koontz fits my core idea for this blog: his novels are for the reader of thrillers and of supernatural or gothic thrillers. His religious views are evident but not intrusive, and evident in two ways: first, his characters often are Catholics and attend mass or confession or consult priests as a matter of course--no big deal. Second, the underlying moral/spiritual universe is Catholic. There are angels, there are ghosts, there are miracles and there are good and bad. There is a belief in the sanctity of life that stands against, for example, euthanasia and cloning.
Still, I'm never sure i'm going to like the next Koontz. Nearly all his books take place in the space of a few days. I prefer stories that change the pace: crime novels generally do this: slow detecting for weeks or months or (in the James Ellroy novel I just finished, Clandestine, five) years. Frenetic action, then life goes on, then more frenetic action.