Under Enemy Colours

Under Enemy Colours is the first novel by Sean Thomas Russell and I, for one, hope that it is the first of many. The notes on the cover compare this book to Patrick O'Brien and Bernard Cornwell. The comparison with Cornwell is apt but Russell is far more entertaining than the wordy and pedestrian O'Brien. I would compare Russell to Alexander Kent and Dudley Pope. Stories of Nelson's navy and it's battles with the French and others have been entertaining British readers ever since the early nineteenth century. The pattern of the stories has hardly changed during all this time with the hero winning through despite being outnimbered and outgunned and hampered by incompetant if not downright malicious superiors. This novel follows this pattern and why not? When you have found a winning formula stick with it I say! The hero of Russell's story is Lieutenant Charles Hayden who is sent by a devious First Secretary of the Admiralty to be First Lieutenant to the cowardly, malicious, incompetant, tyranical but very well connected Captain Hart. Hayden arrives at Plymouth to find the ship a shambles and the crew mutinous with the Captain away on extended leave. Despite the disaffection which is rife throughout the ship and the dispirited attitude of his fellow officers Hayden gets the ship ready for action. However, when Captain Hart arrives his reward is a tongue lashing in front of the entire crew. Somehow, despite the actions of the vindictive Captain, Hayden conducts succesful engagements with the enemy and survives Hart's attempts to end his naval career. This is the sort of book treated with contempt by the literati. In other words, it is a first class page-turner which will give hours of pleasure to anyone who will accept it for what it is. I look forward to many more adventures of Charles Hayden.

The Confession of Piers Gaveston

The Confession of Piers Gaveston by Brandy Purdy is an intelligent and imaginative account of the life of one of English History's most notorious characters. Gaveston was a young man, son of a Gascon Knight in the army of King Edward the First, who is sent by the King to be companion to his heir also Edward. Gaveston has come down to us as a manipulative seducer of the young prince who used his position to gather great wealth and power. Purdy paints a different picture though whether from diligent research or sympathetic imagination I do not know. Whichever it is Purdy tells a compelling story. Gaveston's mother is burnt as a witch whilst his father is away fighting for King Edward. Along with two servants he is turned out to fend for himself at the age of nine and soon finds that his good looks are the surest way to provide them with food and shelter. Arriving in his father's camp he received training in arms and became an expert soldier and jouster. It is as a manly example to his son that the King sends Gaveston to the Prince's household in Hertfordshire but as soon as he arrives the young Prince falls for him with the terrible consequences that follow for all concerned. Both Shakespear and Marlowe wrote plays on the life of King Edward the Second centred around his affair with Gaveston and thus ensured that this remained in the public mind ever since. At Cambridge University gay students founded a Gaveston Society indicating that six centuries after his death his name is still synonymous with homosexuality. Perhaps it is only now in todays less censorious atmosphere that a book giving a more sympathetic interpretation of Gaveston's life and actions could be published. Whatever the truth, and who can say at this distance what it is, Brandy Purdy has written a most interesting book which gives the general reader an alternative insight into a life that for generations has been cast as a monument to vice, perversion and villainy.

The Triumph of Caesar

Someone has recently worked out the number of slaves a Roman household would have to own to enjoy a modern familly's standard of living. Exactly how he or she calculated the human equivalent of a washing machine, dishwasher, constant running hot water, transport and having entertainment always available I do not know but the figure arrived at was ninety three. There were, of course, very few Romans who owned ninety three slaves. Many owned none at all and of those who did even the wealthiest fell short of this figure. So what does this prove? Well, the average Western familly lives like a Roman Emporer so quit moaning could be one answer! Another is settle down in your centrally heated living space in your clean clothes and as you digest a meal that most Romans could only dream about read The Triumph of Caesar by Steven Saylor. This is the twelfth and latest of his justly praised Roma Sub Rosa series. Sub Rosa refers to the tradition of hanging a rose above a meeting indicating that the proceedings were confidential and secret. No Rupert Mudochs or Max Cliffords in Rome then! The main character in this, as in all the Sub Rosa series is a Roman private eye Gordianus known as The Finder and like all good fictional detectives he is not in it just for the money but for truth and justice and all that jazz. OK I'm a Cynic! In the decade or more of civil conflict in Rome Gordianus has shown himself to be, despite his son Meto being a senior aide and admirer of the newly created Dictator for Life, no supporter of Caesar. In the opening chapter he is sent for by Calpurnia, the wife of Caesar, who is convinced that there is a plot against his life and that Gordianus can discover who is behind it. She reveals that she has already hired Hieronymus of Masilia, a friend of Gordianus, to do the job but he was found in an alley behind her villa with a knife between his ribs. Gordianus, who can never resist the chance to take a high moral tone with the aristocracy, agrees to do the job in order to find the killer of his friend and will not accept a fee from her. He does, of course, in the end but that is liberals all over! Like all of Saylor's books it is well researched and unobtrusively informative. Hands up all those who knew that Caesar was awarded an unprecedented four Triumphs by the Senate. These took place over a period of eight days and form the backdrop to the action of the book. To complicate matters Calpurnia is under the influence of an Etruscan Haruspex named Porsenna who claims to be able to read the future in the entrails of animals. He did not, however, foretell the death of Hieronymus. Further, her uncle, Gnaeus Calpurnius, a Pontifex or senior priest is always on hand to pour scepticism on her concerns. Gordianus discovers the notes and reports that Hieronymus has made on his investigation which lead him to interviews with many of the leading figures of the day. Marc Antony, who is currently estranged from his friend Caesar. Cleopatra who has come to Rome to get Caesar to publicly acknowledge their son Caesarion as his heir and Cicero the elderly ex consul and enemy of Caesar who is besotted with his teenage bride. Then there is young Brutus, supposedly a friend and aide to Caesar and we all know how that ended. Once again Steven Saylor blends fact and fiction into a satisfying story which I wholeheartedly recommend.

The Art Thief

Noah Charney is a graduate of Cambridge University and the Courtauld Institute and is considered an expert on art crime so it is hardly surprising that his first novel is entitled The Art Thief. Mr Charney knows his stuff and it is perhaps his over eagerness to impart it that eventualy put me off. Charney writes in a light and witty style that originally reminded me of the late and sadly missed Kyril Bonfiglioli. The difference is that there was a glint of steel beneath the banter in Bonfiglioli's, too small, output. Charney, on the other hand, does not know when to change the mood and after about one hundred pages I had had enough. Don't get me wrong! I am sure that thousands of people will read this book and think it is brilliant but it does not work for me. Mr Charney brews a nice cup of mayhem but there is too much froth on the top for my taste.

The Forgotten Legion

The popularity of novels set in Rome and it's empire is proven by the numbers published and bought. I admit to being part of this market. The most frequent era used as the setting for these books is the end of the Republic and the first century of the Emporers, in other words from Marius to Vespasian. The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane is set at the time of the Triumvirate, approximately ten years between sixty and fifty BC when power was shared between three men, Julius Caesar, Pompey Magnus and Marcus Licinius Crassus. The action centres around the determination of Crassus to be publicly acknowledged as a great general, the equal of Caesar and Pompey. Some years previously it had been Crassus who had put down the Spartacus revolt but somehow Pompey, who had taken only a minor role, managed to be the one awarded a Triumph by the Senate. Crassus had brooded on this injustice ever since and it eat at him like a cancer. He took the opportunity, when made Governor of Syria, to launch a disastrous attack on Parthia which led to total defeat with the deaths of himself, his son Publius and most of his legions. The prisoners taken by the Parthians were given a choice of being executed or signing up to defend Parthia's eastern borders. As Mahomed Ali would later put it, no contest. Into this tragic story of forty thousand men sacrificed on the altar of one man's ambition Ben Kane has woven the lives of four very different characters. The first is Tarquinius last of the true blood Etruscans trained by his mentor Olenus as both a warrior and a soothsayer. The Etruscans always believed that they originated in the far east and Tarquinius is determined to travel there. We are next introduced to Brennus, a warrior of the Alobroges tribe of Gaul who is told his future by the tribal sage who predicts that he will travelwhere no Alobroge has gone before. Brennus is captured by the Romans and sold to a gladiator school. The action then moves on over a decade where Romulus and Fabiola, twins born into slavery, are now being sold by their master. Romulus is sold to the gladiator school where he meets Brennus and Fabiola to a brothel where she meets the young Brutus who falls for her and eventualy buys her. Ben Kane has written a real page turner of an adventure story just the thing for that long flight or train journey. I have, however, two small reservations. Firstly he appears to have taken his knowledge of the Spartacus revolt from the rather fanciful novel by Howard Fast or the even more fanciful film that starred Kirk Douglas. Contemporary records show a far less noble character than either film or book. My second complaint is far more serious. Mr Kane has looked up the Latin words for many everyday items and insists on using them. Worse, he puts them in italics to make sure we all get the message. Ben,mate, you are writing a book in English so a shield is a shield NOT a scutum! Apart from these minor irritants this is a very entertaining book and I look forward to the promised sequel.

The Silent Pool

At some point over the last couple of years an executive at Hodder Headline made the decision to reprint the detective stories of Patricia Wentworth. I do not know how much this person is paid but it is not enough for this is the kind of move that brings the publishing industry into high regard amongst those of us who enjoy a GOOD READ. Patricia Wentworth is one of that elite group that come to mind when the so called Golden Age of detective fiction is mentioned. Dame Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Marjorie Allingham may all be more instantly recognisable and their sleuths, Poirot, Miss Marple, Lord Peter Wimsey and Albert Campion may have been the stars of film and TV adaptation but Patricia Wentworth and Miss Silver are their equal. Unlike the above mentioned Miss Silver is never allowed to take centre stage at the expense of the other characters. She is the observer who sees most of the game and can analyse the evidence from an impartial viewpoint even though she may be contracted to one of the parties involved. To Miss Silver Justice (with a capital J) is all. In The Silent Pool Miss Silver is visited by Adriana Ford, a famous actress now retired and living in a country house surrounded by impecunious relatives. She beieves that on three ocasions someone has attempted to kill her but can provide no concrete evidence to support this. Miss Silver advises her to change her lifestyle to provide fewer opportunities for any potential killer should one exist. The narrative then turns to the cast of characters around whom the story unfolds. Miss Silver is invited to stay at the house by Miss Ford who is still concerned for her own safety, and assumes her usual quiet role as observer and adviser. The drama is played out amongst the familly and staff of the house whose characters are better rounded than in some other detective novels. At the end, of course, Miss Silver is at hand to guide the police in the right direction and all ends in a satisfactory manner. I am sure that readers new to her work will find Miss Wentworth's handling of plot and character provide a standard of civilised entertainment rare in modern detective fiction and it is therefore doubly commendable of Hodder to have given a new generation the opportunity to enjoy it.

There was considerable acclaim in the book pages of the British Press on the publication of The Rose Labyrinth by Titania Hardie and on reading it I can understand why. The Rose Labyrinth is located in the heart of Dan Brown country and the cast of characters consists of the well educated and well rewarded middle class types who are able to pursue mysteries of this kind. Who amongst us has not asked themselves at times how the hero could afford the flights, car rentals, bribes and other expenses that are an integral part of the modern thriller? The plot concerns writings of the sixteenth century mathematician and mystic Dr John Deewhich have been hidden and can only be found by decoding clues found in the works of Shakespeare and amongst writings and artefacts passed down the female line of Dee's familly. These documents are also being sought by a group of American Evangelical Christians (well it makes a change from the Vatican) who believe that something called The Rapture is about to happen as predicted in the Book of Revelations and that Dee's writings are a way of kicking it off. There is a modicum of violence and a touch of the supernatural but mainly it is a brain busting slog through the clues that leads to the conclusion. Mrs Hardie must have done considerable research to pull all the quotes and references together for this, in many respects, very clever book. These days if a book does not grab me within the first few chapters I reckon that life is too short to persevere but, with disbeief in suspension, I found the Rose Labyrinth a ver enjoyable read right to the end.