I am always on the lookout for another good series in the historical/nautical vein. The sad truth is, no matter how prolific one's favorite authors might be, eventually their series come to an end ... or you catch up to them and must wait, patiently, until they produce something new.

Recently, while browsing in a local bookshop, I stumbled on a name I hadn't seen before: James L. Haley. The book, The Devil in Paradise, was the third in a series about Captain Bliven Putnam, an American seafarer in the early 1800s. I don't like starting a series midstream, so I put it back and searched a little harder, quickly turning up a copy of the first book in Putnam's adventures, The Shores of Tripoli. Putnam here is a boy of 14, newly appointed probationary midshipman on the 12-gun schooner Enterprise.

I'll register an immediate sense of disappointment: Having seen that our protagonist is already a captain by book three, I fear his rise in rank will come much more swiftly than would realistically occur ... but I'll reserve judgment until I get that far and see how he achieves it. Even so, it would be nice to see him rise through the ranks more gradually, rather than rushing him into a command post.

Otherwise, the book bends very closely to the historical facts of the day. President Thomas Jefferson has grown tired of appeasing the Barbary pirates of the North African coast and has sent a fleet of new American ships to curtail the threat. On this first mission, Enterprise sails as consort to Commodore Richard Dale's Mediterranean fleet including the frigates Essex, Philadelphia and President, among others.

Enterprise encounters a slightly more powerful Tripolitan ship but emerges victorious -- although the Americans are not authorized to take prizes and must let the ship and crew go free.

Returning home, Putnam works on his family's Connecticut farm -- and meets an eligible young lady -- before being summoned back to the service nearly a year later. Now a lieutenant, he and his friend Sam Bandy are ordered aboard USS Constitution in a larger fleet commanded by Commodore Edward Preble. That puts him in the thick of things at Tripoli, both the bold naval assault to retake or destroy the captured Philadelphia and the overland march to destroy the bashaw's impregnable city of Derna. There, Putnam must navigate the treacherous waters of American naval politics, the strange alliances and deceits of Middle Eastern intrigue, and the haughty depredations of the British navy.

While the long-distance romance is carried on mostly through a few letters, it feels completely ill-suited. I'm not sure if Haley intends it, but he's made Putnam's intended somewhat unlikable so far ... we'll see how things progress. And then there's that brief entanglement with a diplomat's daughter overseas -- that, too, was probably unwise.

Fortunately, romance plays a very minor role in Putnam's adventures. Haley surrounds his protagonist with numerous historical figures that, from my knowledge of the era, seem extremely well researched and brought to life in The Shores of Tripoli -- a chapter in American history that every schoolchild sings about but few know much about. It's good to see the subject tackled with such literary flair and attention to detail.

Putnam is an endearing hero for the series, perhaps a bit too good at everything he attempts and perhaps a bit too quick to impress his superiors at every turn ... but he's likable nonetheless. I look forward to enjoying his further adventures with the United States' fledgling navy.