Intermittently tedious with melodrama that I learned to skip over, it nevertheless offers plenty of action and comeuppance.

This was a sort of historical swash buckler, I suppose. Peter Blood was a physician who had spent time in France as a soldier of fortune, fighting against the Spanish. But, he's back in England being a respectable physician. There's a bit of a local insurrection against King James II of England. He doesn't take part in the insurrection per se, but he gets caught up when he goes to patch up a local worthy who had been wounded. The local authorities claimed he was giving aid and comfort to the enemy, so gathered him up with the insurrectionists. Rather than hanging them, they were sold into slavery in Barbados. They were bought by a Col. Bishop and put to work on his plantation.

Well, a Spanish fleet came into the harbor and began taking things over. The English were more interested in protecting themselves than in guarding their slaves, so Blood and his cronies escaped. Not only did they escape, they managed to take over one of the Spanish ships, a ship which was lightly guarded because much of its crew were ravaging the town in Barbados.

Thus began Blood's career as captain of a privateer, basically, he became a pirate. But he was a good pirate, sort of, he only pirated Spanish ships.

Well, lots happens, among them is that Blood finds himself rather attracted to Arabella Bishop, Col. Bishop's niece and ward. How can that work out well? Well, read the book to find out. Lots of high adventure and skulduggery. Rather a classic of the genre.

A very promising beginning, but it failed to keep me interested throughout. The writing itself is excellent and the character of Blood is magnetic, but the plot doesn't hold up by modern standards, following familiar and predictable tropes by the midpoint.

An excellent book! This is a very entertaining story of the constancy of a good man's character names him once traitor and knave, and finally lord and gentleman under shifting law. As entertaining as the Three Musketeers and of similar appeal.

Just the sort of romantic swashbuckling adventure on the high seas I enjoy reading.

Great action and adventure book about a doctor turned pirate during the reign of James II. The style of the book made me think of The Count Of Monte Cristo.
I took off one star for the rather overt racism coming up here and there. It's accurate for the historical period, but still super uncomfortable to read.
Narration (Michael Maloney) was excellent, but too fast so I had to play it at 90%.

Raucous sea-faring adventure with the clearest lines between right and wrong you’ll ever see… which is both good and bad. The treatment of women in the story as prizes and second class is ugly. The story is a lot more fantasy than I remember, things just work out for the protagonist in ways I didn’t notice on my first reading.

BUT, if you can ignore the ridiculous off the whole affair, it really is a fun adventure that skips along very quickly. Robert Whitfield as audiobook reader is excellent as well.