The Crew of the Foraker by Steve Frazee

 

They were taking Jack Muirhead to the brig on Samar. The crew of the Foraker, an old destroyer escort now, watched with a quietness that was not healthy. Sullenly we watched, crowding the quarter deck as close as we dared, standing on the torpedo deck, sitting aft on the depth charge racks. Signalman and quartermasters stalled around the flag bag, staring down

In our prior offering we looked at a WWI story by a noted Western author, here we follow another Western author [a good one at that] into the Second World War.

This 1953 Naval story is not one of combat, rather it is a tale of a hated commanding officer and the long brooding of revenge.

It is a mature theme, and Frazee seems the man to pull it off but…alas, it feels a bit too pat, a bit rushed, a bit underdeveloped.

Strangely this tale feels more dated than his Westerns although it is of a time far more recent than our Frontier Western past.

Frazee is a stalwart author, and I will return to him again, but likely only in his main genre.