Alexander Kent, who writes the Bolitho Napoleonic War series, is the pseudonym of Douglas Reeman, who writes modern naval fiction. Unlike the Bolitho series, which features the adventures of Richard Bolitho as he moves up the ranks to admiral, Reeman employs a variety of characters and vessels to populate his modern books, set mostly during WWII or later. Path of the Storm takes place after the Vietnam War. Mark Gunnar, captain of the Hibiscus, an old submarine chaser, has been ordered to sail her to the island of Payenhau, where she will be eventually turned over to the Nationalist Chinese. The ship has the usual complement of maladjusted naval characters: the captain driven to revenge by the memories of his torture as a captive of the Vietnamese; the semi-competent executive officer; and the AWOL seaman who rapes a local village girl. Reeman, who served on Arctic convoy ships as a British naval officer during WWII is at his best when he describes shipboard activities and particularly the ferocious typhoon that catches the Hibiscus at sea. Unbeknownst to Gunnar, the island has been infiltrated with Communist agents, who try to seize the island prior to a full-scale invasion of Taiwan. Gunnar and the Hibiscus, of course, play a crucial and decisive role in saving the island (very predictably). But for us sea buffs, the portrayal of the ship at sea is worth the predictable plot.
