Callison, Brian Trapp's War

Captain Edward Trapp, sole survivor of a British warship destroyed in action during World War 1, “a pricky, but curiously likeable rogue,” is determined to make a decent living off the Second World War. To that end, as master of the rustbucket freighter CHARON (“a contraband-running copy of a Port Said clap barge”), he smuggles goods in and out of the besieged island fortress of Malta — and indeed makes a good living at it until forced by a British Admiral to turn the CHARON into a Q-ship (an armed British merchant cruiser). Trapp’s War follows Trapp and his scum of a crew as they bring 1940s privateering to the waters of the eastern Mediterranean. Callison has crafted a fast-paced, if generally improbable, tale of their bloody exploits against German, Italian and sundry “neutral” shipping engaged in supplying North African troops.