Personal Statement

Due to circumstances entirely within the writer's control no further entries will be posted on this blog in the near future. I regret the disappointment to my host of readers.

Crusader Gold

The hero of David Gibbins Crusader Gold is underwater archeologist Jack Howard who as the story opens is conducting a dive in the harbour of Istanbul. Here he is hopin to discover treasures dumped of the Golden Horn by Crusaders who ravaged Constantinople at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Many works of art condemned as Pagan were disposed of in this way and the one that Jack Howard is after is the Menorah. Taken from Jerusalem by the Romans the Menorah was a seven branched lamp made of solid gold which stood on the altar table in the Temple of Solomon. Lodged in the Temple of Peace in Rome it was removed to Constantinople when the centre of the Empire moved to the East but all trace was lost after the pillaging of 1204. Discoveries in Hereford Cathedral bring the Norwegian King Harald Hardrada into the mystery and take Jack Howard and his team to Greenland and South America before the mystery is solved. Also in the plot is a secret brotherhood dedicated to the spirit of Hardrada. Yes folks another secret brotherhood! There are so many of these around I feel I must be the only bloke who is not a member of one. Brotherhoods aside David Gibbins has followed his excellent Atlantis with another ripping yarn of adventure on and under the high seas guaranteed to entertain through a sunny or rainy afternoon.

The Sun King Rises

The Sun King Rises by Yves Jego and Denis Lepee (regret no accent on my keyboard) is another historical novel brought to English readers by the French Embassy backed Gallic Books. The court of the flamboyant Louis the Fourteenth has always been a favourite backdrop for the novelist and Messrs Jego and Lepee have chosen the opening years of the young King's reign to set their intriguing tale. Cardinal Mazarin, whose influence guided the young King through the destructive days of the civil war known as The Fronde, is dying. Now a struggle ensues to take his place at the King's side. Mazarin has recommended his adjutant Colbert but equally powerful is the Superintendant of Finance Nicolas Fouquet. However other forces are at work and an armed group invades the Cardinal's rooms and makes off with his personal papers though the most damaging dossier falls into the hands of Gabriel, the young secretary of the playwrite Molliere, who himself is hiding his true identity. Thus commences an intricate and entertaining story of an unpublished Gospel and a secret brotherhood whose task it is to guard it until the time is judged right to reveal it to the world. Underlying it all is the conflict between Fouquet and Colbert with Gabriel an often bemused player in possesion of the key pieces of the puzzle but unable to make the connections that will enable him to bring events to a conclusion. Translated from the French by Sue Dyson the narrative canters along in the spirited fashion of the best historical novels and is definately recommended to cheer one through a rainy weekend.

Manna from Hades

Carola Dunn is justly famous for her hugely entertaining Daisy Dalrymple detective stories but in Manna from Hades she moves forward forty years and relocates to the wilds of Cornwall. Her new heroine, and I am assuming that this is the first of a series of books featuring her, is a retired widow, Eleanor Trewynn, who lives in the small coastal town of Port Mabyn. The ground floor of her home is used as a charity shop for which she drives round the countryside collecting donated items. As the story opens she returns from one such trip to find a handful of valuable jewels amongst the cast-offs. This is followed by the discovery of a body in the shop's stockroom. There follows one of Miss Dunn's well constructed and delightfully written stories guaranteed to confound and entertain the reader in equal measure.

The Pere-Lachaise Mystery

The Pere-Lachaise Mystery is the second novel by Claude Izner featuring the bookseller turned detective Victor Legris and a splendid tale it is. The story opens with Victor's former mistress, Odette de Valois, recently widowed and visiting the familly mausoleum to pray for her late husband. Her maid is reluctant to enter the cemetary and waits outside for her but she does not return. Desparate, the maid turns to the only person in Paris that she knows, and that is her mistresses former lover. Victor pursues the solution to the mystery with his usual combination of determination and intelligent inquiry though suffering several brutal assaults on the way. Once again he is both assisted and obstructed by his fiery Russian girlfriend Tasha and his partner Kenji. Claude Izner has written a complex tale full of interesting and well drawn characters and conveying the atmosphere of late nineteenth century Paris as it established itself as the world capital of art, fashion and romance. As before the narrative proceeds at a steady pace drawing the reader through the twists and turns of the plot and part of the credit for this must go to the translators Lorenza Garcia and Isobel Reid. The publisher of Claude Izner's books, Gallic Books, is supported by the Cultural Department of the French Embassy in London and a very shrewd move on their part it is as no one who reads these excellent books can fail to see the French in a very favourable light.

The Gods of War

The Gods of War is the third volume of Jack Ludlow's Republic saga. It is set in the long running Roman campaign to subdue the Celtic tribes of the Iberian peninsula, a campaign motivated both for a desire for territory and the memory of their support for the Carthaginians. Centre stage again are the main protaganists of the previous two volumes, Aquila Terrentius and Marcellus Falerius still at each others throats and kept in check only by their commander Titus Cornelius. Jack Ludlow has written a very good adventure story which rattles along at a good pace and if one bears in mind that this is an historical novel and not an academic history one can overlook the minor factual blunders. However, one thing puzzles me mightily. Jack Ludlow is a pen name for the well known writer of Nelsonian sea adventures David Donachie. Now I quite understand that if a writer wishes to step outside the style for which he is famous he may well decide to do this under another name and this is a common practice. What I cannot understand is that having done so he gives the game away by revealing this on the book jacket and in a paragraph of personal details inserted before the narrative. It seems to me that this completely undermines the object of having the pen name.

The Angel of Terror

Like many people nowadays I had forgotten just how good a writer Edgar Wallace could be. Of course, anyone who produced thrillers in the quantity that Wallace managed would suffer from variable quality but on the whole his standard was high enough to make him one of the consistantly best selling writers of his day. Modern readers must make allowances for the different style of writing prevelent in the Twenties and Thirties, different even from the novels set in that period by current writers such as Jacqueline Winspear and Carola Dunn for example. The Angel of Terror is a good example both of the Twenties style and the work of Wallace who specialised in seemingly unbeatable villains. The story is set amongst the English middle class and involves an inheritance and a beautiful and ruthless young woman who will stop at nothing to get her hands on it. The location moves from London to the South of France giving Wallace's readers the glimpse of the good life that they craved from writers of that period. The heroine stubbornly refuses the warnings of the hero regarding the villain but all is set right in the end. Well, more or less for Wallace produces an ending that defies the demands of the time for a tidy conclusion that fits the expected moral parameters. I will reveal no more. This novel is now re-issued in paperback by bibliobazaar.com. Read and enjoy!

Requiem

Requiem is the final volume in Robyn Young's Templar trilogy and a very fitting conclusion it is. Acre, the Order's last foothold in Palestine has been captured by the Saracens leaving the surviving knights with no obvious reason to continue. The Grand Master, Jacques de Molay, tries to plan a new Crusade but without the backing of Europes Princes he stands no chance. The two obvious contenders for the role of leader of a new Crusade are Edward of England and Phillipe of France but both are too concerned with events in their own territories to wish to commit themselves to adventures in the Middle East. However, though robbed of their primary role of protecting pilgrims traveling to the Christian shrines in Jerusalem, the Order is still a force to be reckoned with. The knights are among the most formidable in the world and over the two hundred years of their existance the Order has gained immense wealth. In addition to this they are answerable only to the Pope and outside the jurisdiction of the states in which they reside. As long as they were the warriors of Christ fighting for the Holy Land everyone tolerated their priviledged status but with the defeat at Acre this changed. The French King Phillipe, devout to the point of fanaticism, is manipulated by his chief advisor Guillaume de Nogaret and bullied by his confessor Guillaume de Paris both of whom hate the Templars. Desparate for money Phillipe first expels the Jews and confiscates their assets but this can only be a short term solution what he needs is the much greater wealth of the Knights of the Temple of Solomon. How the Knights are brought to destruction and the valiant attempts made by some members to defend their Order is related with great verve by Miss Young who has created a wonderful cast of fictional characters to supplement the remarkable people whose true story this is. Though they can be read as individual novels taken together this trilogy makes a magnificent historical epic story. One hopes that Miss Young will now turn her eyes on other historical episodes.

The Gazebo

The Gazebo by Patricia Wentworth is another fine Miss Silver mystery. Readers of this blog must by now be tired of my unstinting praise of the work of the late Miss Wentworth but I make no apology for a sunny afternoon, a large glass of something refreshing and a Miss Silver novel is my idea of heaven. In The Gazebo Miss Wentworth introduces us to Mrs Graham, as totaly self-centred a person as it is possible to imagine. She regards her daughter, Althea, as an unpaid servant and keeps her in line by throwing heart attacks at regular intervals. She used this technique five years prior to the opening of this novel to break up Althea's engagement to Nicholas Carey but now Nicholas is back and she fears that the relationship is about to resume. A mysterious newcomer, Mr Blount, arrives and offers to buy their house for twice it's market value causing more friction between mother and daughter but then Mrs Graham is found dead, murdered, in the Gazebo. Will Nicholas Carey be accused of the murder? Where does the brash Mrs Harrison and the decidedly dodgy Fred Worple come in? Have no fear Miss Silver is there to point her old friend Detective Inspector Abbott of Scotland Yard in the right direction.

The Time of Terror

The Time of Terror by Seth Hunter is the first volume of a planned trilogy set in the turbulence of the Terror inspired by Robespierre and his Committee of Public Safety. Nathan Peake is the commander of a brig based at the port of Rye in East Sussex and is used mainly for chasing smugglers on behalf of the Customs but the Admiralty decide he is just the man for a special assignment. The British Government realising that war with Revolutionary France is inevitable are in touch with opponents of Robespierre's regime and plan to help them by smuggling forged French banknotes into Paris. Peake is to command a captured American ship and to pass himself off as a blockade runner. He successfully lands his cargoe and meets his contact, an American, Gilbert Imlay who is the lover of the feminist writer Mary Wollstonecraft. Through them he meets many of the leading figures in Parisian society such as Georges Danton and Camilles Desmoulins. He also meets and falls in love with the beautiful Countess of Turenne. From riotous meetings of the French Assembly to secret trysts with the Paris underworld Seth Hunter takes his hero through every danger and at a cracking pace that kept this reader hanging on every word. Two more volumes to come. Not half enough if this is anything to go by.

Viking: Sworn Brother

Sworn Brother is the second volume in Tim Severin's Viking Trilogy. As with the first volume anyone expecting a Hollywood type saga of war and adventure is in for a disappointment. Tim Severin has written a far more believeable story of survival in a world of hardship and violence often governed by laws and codes of behaviour that to modern eyes seem barbaric. Thorgils, having excaped from Ireland, arrives in London where he begins an affair with the wife of King Knut the Viking King of England. Forced to flee he becomes involved with Grettir the Strong a notorious outlaw and becomes his "Sworn Brother". Joining his old mentor Thrand he becomes part of the last foray of the sad remnants of the once all-conquering Jomsvikings. Re-joining his Sworn Bother on his lonely island hideout he is unable to help when Grettir is murdered. He travels east to Russia and then south to Miklagard as Constantinople is known to the Vikings. Thorgils story is packed with incident but not of the sword swinging macho heroic type once played by Kirk Douglas. The Viking world was glamorous only in their own sagas and the books and films that they have inspired Tim Severin tells of life as it was, hard to the point of brutality, very dangerous and sometimes very, very short.

In At The Death

In At The Death by David Wishart has his Roman sleuth Marcus Corvinus risking more bruises as he tries to solve the murder of a young aristocrat who was supposed to have commited suicide by throwing himself from the top story of an Aventine tenement building. Engaged, for Marcus does not feel insulted by the offer of money, by the head of the Green chariot racing team to investigate he soon finds a complex plot that goes far beyond the compensation scam that he originaly believes is behind the death and finds him once again offending the rich and powerful as he tries to find the truth. Smart and persistant as he is he discovers that there are minds far more devious than he could imagine and plots deeper and more dangerous than even a well connected sprig of the aristocracy like Marcus can tangle with and survive unscathed. A pity we are not told that Marcus managed to collect his fee from the leader of the Greens after all he went through he certainly deserved it. Once again this Classics scholar turned novelist has taken us on a highly entertaining journey through the darker passages of the endlessly fascinating city of Rome.

White Blood

White Blood by James Fleming is a revelation. Yes, someone still writes a good old fashioned action story without the slightest genuflection to the politicly correct. His hero Charlie Doig is half British half Russian and spends his early life trekking through varieties of inhospitable terrain looking for rare species of insect as assistant to the German naturalist Goetz. He travels to Russia to look up his relatives and arrives just as the First World War breaks out. Charlie has no intention of returning to Britain to join up as he has become too much his own man to be directed into the killing fields by others but as Russia breaks down into anarchy he shows that he is more than capable of taking up arms when his cousin's house is attacked by Bolsheviks. This is a splendid story told in the bluff prose I associate with the boys adventure books written between the two world wars by ex-officers trying to eek out the meagre pensions awarded by a grateful nation. My one regret is that this poor review does not do this book justice.

Alexander: The Virtues of War

Having read Steven Pressfield's The Afghan Campaign which is most certainly one of the outstanding historical novels of this new century it was inevitable that I would turn to his earlier work. In Alexander: The Virtues of War Pressfield goes where few historical novelists dare to tread, he puts himself in the mind and personality of the towering figure of Alexander the Great and makes him narrate his own story. Using this method Pressfield reveals a character far from the self-centred glory hunting despot of some other works. Tutored by Aristotle but heavily influenced by his father's officers, well aware of the rift between his parents and anxious to claim the approbation of them both he is beginning to draw closer to his father when he is assasinated almost before his eyes and rumour places the blame at his door. After winning his father's officers to his side he begins the series of campaigns that make his name a byword for military genius and inspire other generals from Julius Caesar to Napoleon to imitate and try to surpass him. Alexander sees his conquests as more that just loot gathering brigandage on a massive scale but a chance to establish a stable and long lasting political entity encompassing all the peoples of his new empire. His promotion of Persian nobles and others into his personal circle did not go down well with his Macedonians and leads to potentialy dangerous friction. Alexander is also forced to confront the practical limits of his power as he changes from a local warlord to the administrative pinnacle of a complex and wide ranging empire. He finds himself powerless to stamp out cruel and corrupt practices that have become intrinsic parts of the administrative structure. (Tell us about it!) Steven Pressfield has written a book of outstanding quality which will be read for many years to come and can be compared with the greats of previous generations such as Robert Graves and Mary Renault.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying

Keep the Aspidistra Flying is an early example of George Orwell as novelist although he had already considerable experience as a journalist and had published Down and Out in Paris and London which received acclaim. This novel was written prior to his travelling to the North of England to study social conditions and lead to the publication of The Road to Wigan Pier. This novel charts one man's attempt to take on the system single handed with the result which is almost inevitable from the start. The book is written solely from the standpoint of Gordon Comstock the last of a fading middle class familly who is expected to "do well" not just for himself but for his rather pathetic relatives. The honour of the House of Comstock rests on his shoulders. Gordon, however, resents and is repelled by what he calls the "money culture" of nineteen thirties Britain. He gives up a "good job" to work in a book shop supposedly to give him time to write poetry but instead he slides into poverty and depression. Is Comstock really rebelling against society or failing under the pressure of expectation placed on his shoulders by his familly. This book is a stunning exposition of character and it's setting in society both intimate and as a whole and thus is as revealing as any text book on Britain in the Thirties. It is exactly fifty years since I first read this book and it's impact is as immediate to me after a lifetime of experience as it was in my youth.

The Lost Throne

The Lost Throne by Chris Kuzneski is another of the "search for lost treasure which has been hidden for centuries and guarded by a secret army" type of book of which there are many these days. If this is the kind of book that turns you on then The Lost Throne will give hours of enjoyment and I must admit that I read through to the end carried along on Mr Kuzneski's rattling prose. The two heroes are perhaps a little too much even for ex Special Forces types. A little vulnerability on their part would have made them more appealing something that Ian Fleming realised as he created James Bond. Whilst books of this type are fanciful in the extreme nonetheless they require considerable research to give the plot a patina of credibility. It is obvious that Mr Kuzneski has not shirked this task and his scene-setting is excellent. The Lost Throne is just the job for a long-haul flight or a lazy afternoon by the pool though personaly I require a touch more of the bite of reality even in adventure novels.

Out Of The Past

In Out Of The Past Patricia Wentworth gives us another splendid "whodunnit". Miss Maud Silver is on holiday in Cliffton with her neice Ethel, mother of the children for whom Miss Silver is constantly knitting. Into this quiet backwater comes Alan Field, a prize rotter, who has money on his mind and no scruples about how he gets it. There is no surprise when he is murdered and no shortage of people with motives for committing the crime. When Detective Inspector Abbott of Scotland Yard is brought in the "old firm" is once again on the case and with Miss Silver's sense of justice a satisfactory, if not strictly legal, conclusion is produced. Miss Wentworth has spun another compelling yarn.

The Mesmerist's Apprentice

The Mesmerist's Apprentice is the second Victorian thriller by L. M. Jackson to feature the formidable Sarah Tanner. As the story opens she finds herself at odds with Jim Cranks, a vicious youth and leader of a gang that calls itself the Brass Band from the brass rings the gang members wear. She is also approached for help by Arthur DeSalle, son of Viscount DeSalle, and her former lover. His father has been disabled beyond medical help by a stroke and this has lead his mother to fall into the hands of Dr Stead, the mesmerist's apprentice. At the same time letters are missing from the offices of Mr Wilmot, the Desalle familly solicitor, that lead to blackmail and violence. Mr Jackson weaves all this together into a most satisfying mystery. He well deserves the praise that has been given to his work.

Warrior of Rome: Fire in the East

There are many people who are experts on a subject but who cannot turn the knowledge into a readable novel also there are many good writers whose efforts at research are presented in a manner that irritates rather than informs and spoils an otherwise good story. In Dr Harry Sidebottom we are fortunate to have someone who is not only an expert but also a vastly entertaining storyteller. In his first novel Fire in the East he tells the story of Dernhelm, son of Isongrim, Warleader of the Angles who is sent as a hostage to the Court of Rome. At the age of sixteen he is forced into a plot to assassinate the Emporer Maximinus Thrax at the seige of Aquilea. It is he who kills the Emporer by stabbing him in the throat with a stylus. After this the ghost of Maximinus appears to him at moments of stress. Years spent in a successful military career see Balista, as he has come to be known, a member of the Equestrian Order, a Knight of Rome and married to the daughter of a Senatorial familly. In AD255 he is commissioned by the joint Emporers Valerian and Galienus to travel to the province of Syria and organise the defence of the city of Arete, threatened by the forces of the Persian Sassenid King. He is given the title of Dux Ripae, Commander of all Roman forces on the banks of the rivers Euphretes and Tigris and all the lands in between but nothing in the way of manpower. He is promised that the Emporer Valerian will raise a Field Army and come to his aid the following year. On the way to his new command he has to fight a sea battle against pirates and when he arrives he finds his Roman born subordinates less than happy to take orders from a barbarian and the allies who were supposed to provide reinforcements refuse to comply. To add to his troubles there is a traitor in the camp. To tell more would be to spoil a wonderful story for the reader. Finishing this excellent novel could leave one downcast were it not for the fact that we are promised more to come.

Pack Animals

Pack Animals by Peter Anghelides is a novel based on the popular TV series Torchwood and features all the characters in it and the city of Cardiff where it is set. If you are a fan of the programe and it's immortal leader Captain Handsome Jack Harkness and it's ability to fight swarms of aliens without the people of Cardiff noticing a thing then you will love this book. The Torchwood organisation was set up by Queen Victoria after Handsome Jack saved her from an alien assassin and he has been fighting aliens and keeping their technology out of the hands of the rest of us ever since. In this book, however, a piece of powerful technology has fallen into the hands of a youth who uses it to revenge himself for real or imagined slights suffered in childhood with devastating results. If this kind of thing is your idea of a good read OK, if not don't touch it. Love it or hate it there is no middle way with this kind of book.

The Exodus Quest

Last year I read Will Adams first novel The Alexander Cipher and wondered if he could possibly keep up the standard he had set himself in a second novel. In The Exodus Quest he has answered in a most affirmative manner. The setting again is Egypt, the hero is Daniel Knox and his aides Gaille Bonnard and Augustin Pascal who all featured in the Alexander Cipher. Archeologist Knox has his "little grey cells" stirred by discovering the lid of an ancient scroll jar for sale in a street market. This puts him on the trail of an ancient sect and brings him into conflict with the Rev. Peterson, an American Hell Fire evangelist operating an illegal dig near Lake Mariut. Meanwhile Gaille finds herself entangled with Charles Stafford a writer of popular history books full of speculation and outlandish theories. After penetrating Peterson's dig Knox crashes his jeep while being chased by his security men. His friend Omar, an Antiquities Inspector is killed. Knox is concussed and loses his memory allowing Peterson to accuse him of murder. Escaping from the hospital he is chased by both the police and the murderous Reverend. Gaille is held hostage by a corrupt policeman, and together with Stafford and his assistant are held in a cave which is rapidly flooding during a torrential downpour. Will Knox arrive in time to rescue Gaille? Will he discover the hidden tomb? I never knew that archeology was so exhausting. Equally enthralling for me were the conversation pieces where speculation on the origin of the Exodus story and the heretic Pharoah Ahkenaten were explored. Could Judaism really have developed from the monotheism of this iconoclastic ruler. Somehow I do not think that this book will be a bestseller in Israel. However, taken as the entertainment it is intended to be it is first class. It gallops along at a cracking pace and kept this reader turning the pages all day. Fortunately it was raining and I could not be called on for gardening duties.

The Watersplash

Since I started writing this blog I have reviewed eight of the Maud Silver mysteries by Patricia Wentworth and have run out of new ways to praise her work. In The Watersplash we have murder tied to an inheritance in a small country village in the Home Counties. Yes I know that most of her plots follow this kind of theme but Wentworth scores by her skill as a storyteller. The characters are well drawn and their are the requisite number of red herrings in a narrative that carries the reader along with style and old world charm.

Alexandria

I have been a firm fan of historical detective stories since I first read Ellis Peter's A Morbid Taste for Bones thirty years ago and of all the many excellent writers who have followed since Lindsey Davis is one of the best. Her Roman sleuth Marcus Didius Falco is an engaging and resourcful character and over the course of her nineteen books she has introduced us to his aristocratic wife Helena and the rest of his familly which provides background and depth to the stories. Her latest, Alexandria, is well up to her very high standard. Falco has taken his familly on a well earned holiday to Egypt to see the Pyramids, the Sphinx and all the rest of the tourist sites that all well-bred Romans should visit. Falco is offered accomodation by his uncle Fulvius who with his boyfriend Cassius are businessmen of a decidedly dodgy stripe. When his reprobate father, a pillar of the fake antiques trade, turns up Falco suspects the worst. However, thoughts of familly problems are thrust aside when the Prefect of Alexandria asks him to investigate the murder, in a locked room no less, of Theron the Chief of the Library. The investigation leads him into devious plots and quite a lot of personal danger. Could members of his own familly be involved in nefarious activities? Perish the thought! Falco not only solves the crime and saves the Library but manages to take the fair Helena to see the Pyramids. As we say in these intellectual realms this is a bostin' good book.

The Last Gospel

David Gibbins has obviously done massive amounts of research for his new novel The Last Gospel and has used it to produce an intriguing story of a search for a papyrus on which the words of Jesus Christ as dictated to the Roman Emporer Claudius are writen. As in his previous two novels his main characters are archeologist Jack Howard and his friend and technical wizard Costas. The action starts as they dive on a wreck off the coast of Sicily attempting to track the journey of St Paul to Rome. Called to Herculaneum where an earthquake has opened up part of the buried city and provided a unique chance to explore a previously inaccesible villa or it would be if someone was not trying to keep the site closed. Enter the villains and once again it is the Vatican now the organisation of choice for thriller writers since the KGB packed up. Why writers feel that they can portray this collection of elderly priests as a dynamic international power organisation is beyond me. Surely there must be some more convincing power brokers around who could fulfill this role but perhaps it is the powerlessness of the Church compared to other groups that makes them such an easy target. Gibbins plot is backed up by historical facts and sometimes it is difficult for a non-historian to tell where fact ends and fiction starts but it is all very enjoyable nonsense.

Viking: Odinn's Child

Viking: Odinn's Child by Tim Severin is the first volume of a trilogy following the life of Thorgils Leifsson. Born in 999 on the threshold of the millenium year that many thought would bring the end of the world and the second coming of Christ he spends his childhood and youth in Iceland and Greenland his fate always in the hands of others. He reaches Vinland (Nova Scotia) in the train of his malevolent step sister and from there back to Iceland and on to Orkney were he is swept up into the service of the flamboyant Norse King of Dublin. Captured and enslaved by an Irish Chieftain he is presented to a monastery where he learns to read and write. Then he ...... well he goes from adventure to adventure. Never a dull moment in the company of Thorgils Leifsson and when this volume ends he is still only nineteen. Will he survive to old age? Will he survive to reach twenty? There are still two volumes to come so the prospects are good.

The Book of Lies

The Book of Lies by Brad Meltzer is another Dan Brownesque romp through Biblical antiquity lead by the obligatory macho American. This time the fact that the weapon that Cain used to murder Abel is not specified in the Biblical texts is supposed to assume some significance (to whom apart from Abel?) and, of course, there is a book that contains the answer to life, the universe and everything. I admit that I gave up the chase after about one hundred pages but this is just my personal opinion and I am sure that there will be many people out there who will derive many hours of pleasure from this book.

The Suns of Caresh

On the subject of Dr Who there appears to be no half measures, one is either for or against. I have been a fan ever since the series began on TV and I insisted in watching with my children in case they were frightened, of course. That being said I must admit that I have not always been impressed by the efforts of those who write Dr Who books. Often what would be a good idea for an half hour TV episode stretches too thin when pushed to novel length. The Suns of Caresh by Paul Saint runs to 282 pages but it would, in my opinion, have been a better book with fifty pages less. Neverthless it is a very creditable effort and in the hands of a stricter editor would have been among the best.
Memo to all Dr Who writers: Aim for 200 pages that is all most scenarios will take.

Lonesome Road

Lonesome Road is another of Patricia Wentworth's vastly entertaining Miss Silver murder mysteries except that on this occasion it is a case of attempted murder. Miss Silver is approached by Rachel Treherne who has received a series of threatening letters. Miss Treherne was the sole beneficiary of her wealthy father's will and has since been surrounded by a collection of impecunious relatives all of whom are using Rachels sensitivity to her position to obtain money from her. Despite the series of murderous traps laid for her the fact that only a member of her household could be responsible makes her refuse to involve the police or even to name a suspect. Notwithstanding these obstacles placed in her path by her client Miss Silver sorts things out to everyone's satisfaction but the would-be muderer and without calling on her friends from Scotland Yard. Another good'un.

The Bellini Card

It is a very brave writer that chooses for his hero a Eunuch of the Ottoman Court considering the contempt and indeed revulsion with which these unfortunate men have been viewed in the West. However, with his creation Yashim Jason Goodwin has successfully overcome this and given us a sympathetic and intriguing character. In this, his third story, he provides us with a satisfyingly complex tale set against a well researched and illustrated background. The story opens when the newly enthroned Sultan Abdulmecid orders his Vizier, Resid Pasha, to find a portrait of his ancestor Sultan Mehmet , the conqueror of Constantinople, which was painted by the Venetian Bellini but later removed from the palace by the Sultan Beyazid. In some interpretations of Islam the production of images of God's work is considered blasphemy and therefore a portrait would be anathema to many devout Muslims and Resid Pasha stalls hoping that the Sultan will forget about it. He does not and sends for the Court's number one problem solver Yashim and gives him the task of locating the painting. Resid Pasha makes it clear that any such move on Yashim's part will earn his enmity which the eunuch cannot afford. To try to satisfy both masters Yashim recruits his friend Stanislaw Palewski, Ambassador to the Sublime Porte of a Poland that no longer exists. Palewski travels to Venice to track down the portrait and finds himself up to his neck in plots and danger. The Venice of this story is a sad shadow of the glory days of the Serene Republic. Invaded and looted by Napoleon's army then taken into the Austrian Empire following the defeat of the French the despair and cynicism of the Venetian people is wonderfully portrayed in this excellent book whose twists and turns kept this writer glued to the page.

The Coronation

Erast Fandorin, the hero of the detective novels of Boris Akunin, is in my opinion the nearest any writer has come to creating a Russian Sherlock Holmes. His latest adventure, The Coronation, is a truly fascinating book even by the high standards that Akunin has set for himself. He has chosen to present his story in the form of a memoir by one ofthe characters centraly involved in the action with Fandorin appearing on the periphery of the main narrative. The story is set during the coronation of Tsar Nicholas, the last of the Romanovs. Although the Capital was moved to St Petersburg by Peter the Great the coronation must by tradition be held in Moscow and so all the Court and it's principal members have moved there for the ceremony. The story is told through the words of Afanasii Stepanovich butler to the Grand Duke Georgii Alexandrovich, uncle of the Tsar and a prominent member of the familly council that advises His Imperial Majesty. Shortly after their arrival it is decided that Afanasii should take the Grand Duke's two children, Prince Mikhail and Princess Xenia, for a walk in the park surrounding the palace that the familly and it's entourage have been allocated.During the walk Prince Mikhail is kidnapped by agents of the fiendish master criminal Dr Lind. Shades of Moriarty! That is as much of the story as I will put down here as the narrative of the pursuit of the evil Doctor in the words of a servant obviously out of his depth but anxious to fulfill his obligation to the familly that has his total loyalty is as fascinating a tale as this writer has read in a long while. I began by comparing Erast Fandorin to Sherlock Holmes, a comparison that may provoke disagreement from some readers but having read all but one of the previous Fandorin stories of Boris Akunin I believe that mu assertion stands. It is, of course, for other readers to reach their own conclusions.

The Samaritan's Secret

The Samaritan's Secret by Matt Rees explores the fractured and fascinating society thatexists on the West Bank of the River Jordan through the medium of a detective story. The main character is Omar Yussef a teacher at a UN school in a refugee camp who somehow finds himself involved in solving crimes. In this story he has travelled to Nablus to attend the wedding of his friend Sami, a police Lieutenant, who takes him to meet the Chief Rabii of the few remaining Samaritans, a small Jewish sect who keep themselves separate both from Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims. Their most sacred book has been stolen from their synagogue and it is upon this copy of the Torah, which differs fundamentaly from that used by other Jews, that their whole faith and community is based. Naturaly this is only the opening shot in a fusilade of interlocking episodes, some mysterious some violent, that make up this very readable book. Mr Rees manages to introduce his readers to many facets of a culture of which, I for one, knew little or nothing. He paints a vivid if depressing picture of the dangers and difficulties faced by ordinary Palestinians as they try to make a living and bring up their famillies. It is very sobering to read about people to whom life in Britain, with all it's problems, would seem like entry to the promised land.

Flesh House

On the front cover of Flesh House by Stuart MacBride it is described as "Fierce and unflinching" and for once it is not an exageration. This is not my usual style of reading matter but I read it through to the end as the narrative exerted an awful fascination rather as one is compelled to look at the result of a motor accident. The story concerns the hunt for a serial killer and the determination of a senior police officer to pin the blame on to one particular suspect regardless of the evidence. Twenty years before the action of this book a killer known as The Flesher had been sent down for life but new forensic evidence had thrown doubt on the conviction and he was released on appeal. Now a new spate of killings has started and the Detective Inspector in charge of the case was a young Detective Constable heavily involved in the original conviction and he is unshakable in his belief that the newly released man is responsible. MacBride writes an uncompromising narrative which is not for the faint hearted with blood chilling descriptions of violence and a cast of characters that one would make every effort to avoid. The hero, if that is the correct appellation, is Detective Serjeant Logan McRae a long suffering sidekick to Detective Inspector David Insch a blustering bully forever in danger of losing his hair trigger temper and exploding into violence. In addition he is also at the beck and call of D.I. Steel a foul mouthed, chain smoking lesbian and, as in all "police proceedurals" these days, the senior officers spend as much time working against each other as they do attempting to apprehend criminals. The police in general are portrayed as cynical, hard drinking jobsworths with little or no concern for the people they are paid to protect. Could this be an accurate portrayal of a modern police force? However, if ones taste is for a pacy "hard boiled" detective story full of violence and foul language the Flesh House will almost certainly fill the bill.

Eternity Ring

Eternity Ring is another first class detective story by Patricia Wentworth featuring Private Enquiry Agent Miss Maud Silver and Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Lamb and Detective Serjeant Frank Abbott. Serjeant Abbott is visiting relatives in the country when his rural idyll is shattered by a young woman who claims to have seen the body of a woman in the woods but when a search is made no trace can be found. Thus begins another complex and vastly entertaining Wentworth mystery with it's full supply of red herrings and intriguing characters. Much of the pleasure of Miss Wentworth's books for me is her ability to use the English language to convey all the tension of a thriller without reorting to gratuitous violence and obscenities. This may be an old fashioned view but one more widely held than some writers realise.

Conjugal Rites

I picked up Conjugal Rites by Paul Majrs (pronounced Mars) mainly because Russell T Davies, the man mainly responsible for the resurrection of Dr Who, had proclaimed Majrs "a great novellist". I hate to disagree with Mr Davies, of whose Dr Who programmes I am a fan, but such a designation is ludicrous. Conjugal Rites is entertaining if one likes that sort of thing and I am sure that it will go down well among students at minor universities to whom "different" equals "talent" but for mainstream readers like myself "way out" equals "early exit". This is another volume that I failed to read all the way through.

The Key

Although first published in nineteen forty six The Key by Patricia Wentworth is set at some indeterminate time during the Second World War. An emigre scientist, Michael Harsch, has for years been working on a new super explosive at a laboratory in the small village of Bourne in the rural Home Counties. He completes his final experiment and phones his government contact to report success but that night he commits suicide. Or does he? There are, of course, a multiplicity of suspects but on to the scene comes Miss Silver to point Scotland Yard's Chief Inspector Lamb and Detective Sergeant Abbott on to the right conclusion once again. I have yet to read a book by Miss Wentworth that fails to satisfy me. A comfy armchair and a quiet afternoon or evening is all one needs to be transported to a time when the English language was still in common use and characters could express themselves without resorting to obscenities.

The Last Testament

The Last Testament by Sam Bourne is advertised as in the style of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code but as with so many imitators it falls short of the original. If one is into this kind of thing it will pass a pleasing few hours but I admit that I read only the first two hundred pages. Until now I have refrained from writing anything about a book that I did not like or did not finish reading but of late I feel that I owe it to my readers (if any) to say what I feel about any volume that falls into my hands. If anyone feels that I am being unfair to the writers concerned by doing this please leave a comment.

The Siege of Khartoum

The Siege of Khartoum by John Wilcox takes that famous episode and provides another adventure for his hero Simon Fonthill and his companion 352 Jenkins. One of Victorian England's most popular soldiers, General Gordon, is sent by the British Government to organise the evacuation of Khartoum which is threatened by the forces of The Mahdi. Whether by accident or design Gordon finds himself organising not an evacuation but a defence and as the Mahdi and his forces close in the pressure is on the British Government to send a rescue mission. The Prime Minister William Gladstone is reluctant to engage in the Sudan and constantly frustrates General Wolseley in his attempts to progress down the Nile towards Khartoum. Wolseley is also frustrated by the conflicting messages he receives from Gordon and so sends Fonthill and Jenkins to penetrate Khartoum and return with an appraisal of the situation. They manage to infiltrate the city through the lines of the beseigers but are captured on the way back and after surviving brutal treatment that would have left this writer a gibbering wreck return to British lines too late to save Gordon. This is the sixth Fonthill adventure and the fourth that I have read. I shall most certainly endevour to read the other two.

Ship of Rome

Ship of Rome is the first in a series by new writer John Stack and if this is any indication a first class series it will be! The story is set at the beginning of the Punic Wars, that epic conflict between the newly emerging power of Rome and the established mercantile empire of Carthage. After a series of wars with other city states Rome has become the dominant power on the mainland of Italy and now looks to the island of Sicily on which Carthage already has several bases. The Carthaginians had been defeated at the Battle of Agrigentum confirming the superiority of the Roman Legions in land battles but the Roman forces needed constant re-supply from the mainland and this was their weakness as Carthage was as dominant on the seas as Rome on land. How Rome built a navy from scratch and defeated the blockading Carthaginians is the story that Ship of Rome tells in a narrative that propels the reader onwards like a galley at ramming speed. This kind of book would never be reviewed by the Times Lit Sup and would be greeted with utter disdain by the literati but for those of us who like a rollicking good story straightforwardly told this is about as good as it gets.

Silent in the Sanctuary

Silent in the Sanctuary by Deanna Raybourn is a very entertaining Victorian murder mystery and is the second outing for her heroine Lady Julia Grey and the enigmatic Nicholas Brisbane. Lady Julia is recalled from Italy by her father the Earl March (I wonder what the Duke of Richmond's heir thinks of that?) to spend Christmas at the familly home Bellmont Abbey. One of the guests is Julian Snow the local Curate, who appears to live well above his income, and Nicholas Brisbane accompanied by a widow who he introduces as his fiancee. One of the guests is murdered in the chapel, another makes an hysterical confession of guilt and claims sanctuary (hence the title) and yet another turns out to be a professional jewel thief. Mis Raybourn's narrative is very entertaining but the book cover description of "wickedly witty" is going it a bit. The ending was rather spoiled for me when Lady Julia takes a priceless set of pearls given to her by her late husband and gives them to a gypsy. As one does!!! Surely if she did not want the pearls they should have been returned to the Grey familly where they had been kept for generations or perhaps to one of her sisters. I do not know why writers feel compelled to make their leading characters indulge in quite ridiculous acts of altruistic generosity. It does not happen in real life and often spoils the atmosphere of the book which it has taken the writer hundreds of pages to establish.

Darkness Rising

Darkness Rising is the fourth novel by Frank Tallis featuring the Viennese psychologist Max Liebermann and Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt. A decapitated body is found outside one of Vienna's churches the head torn, not cut, from the body. Soon a second body is found in identical circumstances. Both men had publicly attacked the jews in newspaper articles. Are a Jewish group responsible? A third identical murder is discovered this time of a Jewish man. Is this retaliation? Rheinhardt and his superiors are fearful of an outbreak of civil disorder. Meanwhile Max Liebermann finds himself facing a threat to his position at the General Hospital as politicians use religion for their own ends. Like many educated people Liebermann rejects the mysticism of his Jewish background but finds himself confronted by it's modern exponents as he attempts to aid Rheinhardt in his investigation. This is the first of these novels where Tallis explores Liebermann's Jewish heritage and his dilemma as a rational scientific person in balancing this against his desire to be seen as just an Austrian citizen.

The Wolf Sea

The Wolf sea by Robert Low is a cracking good Viking adventure story of the type that some claimed are not written any more. This book follows the travel of Orm Bear-Slayer and his crew The Oathsworn begun in The Whale Road and finds them in Miklagard (Constantinople) without a ship and running out of money having reached there just ahead of the forces of Prince Yaropolk of the Rus. Orm is ambushed by men of the crew of Starkad, a warrior of the court of King Harold Bluetooth of the Danes, and the sword Rune Serpent is stolen from him. This is the sword that belonged to Attila the Hun and was buried with him but taken by Orm when he and the Oathsworn discovered Attila's tomb and the vast treasure it housed. Orm had carved into the hilt runes which would guide him back to the treasure and so, aided by a Slav merchant Radoslav, the Oathsworn set out after Starkad and the sword. Caught up in the machinations of a crooked Greek merchant (are there any other kind? I am talking about in fiction here before the writs start flying) and an ambitious Byzantine general Orm and the Oathsworn pursue Starkad encountering many dangers and not a little treachery on the way. OK OK it is Boys Own adventure with a bit of sex and swearing thrown in but I loved every minute of it and look forward with impatience to the next volume.

Latter End

Latter End is another of the excellent Miss Silver mysteries by the late Patricia Wentworth. The title of the book is taken from the beautiful country home of the Latter familly whose tranquility has been disturbed by the presence of Lois, second wife of the owner Jimmy Latter. The determination of Lois to have her way in all things is aided by Jimmy's adoration of the woman whose wealth and beauty still leave him stunned by his good fortune in making her his wife. However, everyone else in the familly sees her for the selfish and domineering character she really is and so when she dies of poison in her coffee there is no shortage of suspects. Fortunately Miss Silver is on hand to find the truth of the matter in her own inimitable fashion. For years I have been amongst those who put Dame Agatha Christie at the head of those writers of genteel murder mysteries but I must admit to gradually transferring my allegiance to Miss Wentworth with every book of hers I read.

Murder on the Eiffel Tower

Murder on the Eiffel Tower is the first work of this writer to be published in English and is sure to please lovers of Victorian detective stories. Set in Paris in 1889 during the great exhibition whose centre piece was the Tower it features bookshop owner Victor Legris and his business partner Kenji Mori. Victor is visiting the Tower when a woman collapses and dies. A bee sting is the official explanation but Victor is suspicious and has the backing of a newspaper publisher Marius Bonnet. The authorities are not keen on any explanation that could bring adverse publicity to the exhibition but as the deaths pile up Victor finds himself drawn deeper into the mystery. The narrative creates an excellent atmosphere of nineteenth century Paris when it was the centre of the Art and Fashion world as Victor pursues the solution to these apparently motiveless crimes. The writer keeps the pace bowling along nicely and part of the credit for this must go to the translation by Isabel Reid. Congratulations must go to the imprint Gallic Books for bringing this, and other, entertaining French novels to the attention of English readers.

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is a debut novel by S.J. Bolton and is about illegal adoption and muder set in the Shetland Isles. The heroine, if that is the right word, opens the action by attempting, illegaly, to bury her favourite horse in the field behind her house and in doing so finds a body. She calls the police but is not satisfied by the attitude of the senior officer and so uses her position in the local hospital to do some checking of her own which leads her into danger but, of course, all is sorted in the last chapter. The action is well written with good descriptive passages that maintain the atmosphere and keep the pages turning. That I am writing this review means that I liked it enough to keep reading to the end as I do not feel justified in reviewing books that I give up on after three or four chapters but I must admit that I was not keen on it. My lack of enthusiasm centres on the main character a consultant obstretician known as Miss Hamilton despite being married to a man named Guthrie. Her instant reaction to the slightest criticism or opposition is an instant torrent of often foul mouthed abuse which is off-putting to say the least. Having unfortunately worked with one or two women of this ilk I do not want to spend my spare time with one. Like all book lovers I am signed up to that contract between writer and reader called "Suspension of Disbelief" and I am therefore happy to go along with Miss Hamilton's ability to climb through windows, crawl through heather and survive falling overboard and swimming to safety but sailing a strange craft in the pitch dark and a Force Five gale in the treacherous waters off Shetland and making a successful landfall on a strange beach is pushing the contract too far.

The Officer's Prey

The disastrous invasion of Russia by Napoleon's Grande Armee is the setting for Armand Cabasson's The Officer's Prey. Captain Quentin Margant is an officer of the 84th Regiment of Infantry which is part of the Fourth Corps commanded by Prince Eugene de Beauharnais stepson of the Emporer. The Prince gives Margant the task of discovering the murderer of a Polish maid savagely killed at an Inn as the Corps waits to cross the river Niemen, the opening phase of the invasion. The only clue is that the culprit is an officer. Margants pursuit and solution to the murder is very good but I found the story as a description of the steady disintigration of the French Army in the face of Russian scorched earth tactics and the onset of winter the most rewarding aspect of this very entertaining book. Cabasson writes a very fluent narrative which captivated this reader from page one and no doubt much of the credit for this is due to the excellent translation by Michael Glencross. However, there was one nagging thought that I could not get out of my mind. For twenty years the forces of the French Revolution had turned first France then the rest of Europe into an abattoir so why make a big investigation into one more murder among thousands. Perhaps a Frenchman could tell me.

Warrior

Allan Mallinson is a former senior officer in the British Army and commander of one of it's, now motorised, cavalry regiments. It is not surprising, therefore, that he has produced ten excellent novels featuring Mathew Hervey of the 6th Light Dragoons. In Warrior Hervey is once again in South Africa involved in one of the many skirmishes with the local tribes that occupied the British Army between the major engagements of the Napoleonic Wars and the conflict with the Boer Republic. Mallinson has once again produced an entertaining novel from one of history's minor incidents.

Trace Memory

Trace Memory by David LLewellyn is an amusing adventure based on the television series Torchwood and using it's cast of characters. If one is a fan of this series, and I am, then the book is a pleasant evening or afternoon in company with characters with which one is familiar. The story opens in 1953 on Cardiff docks when a mysterious crate explodes turning a young docker, Michael Bellini, into an involuntary time traveller pursued by the oldest creatures in the universe and no, that does not include this writer even if he does feel that way sometimes. After materialising in the Torchwood vaults the team realise that he has appeared in the lives of all of them at various times and that his appearance at Torchwood is linked to the remains of the 1953 explosion now stored there, a radioactive sphere which is sought by the ancient beings known as the Vondrax. This is a book strictly for the fans of Captain Jack Harkness and his team who, fortunately for the BBC, are legion.

The Devil's Domain

The Devil's Domain is one of a series of medieval mysteries by P.C.Doherty featuring Brother Athelstan the Dominican friar who is priest of the extremely down market parish of St. Erconwald in Southwark. His other job is secretary to the London Coroner the flamboyant Sir John Cranston which means that he spends as much time solving crime in the capital as tending his wayward flock. Here Paul Doherty has handed Brother Athelstan and Sir John a locked room mystery, espionage, the machinations of John of Gaunt and Gervase his Keeper of Secrets and a couple of star-crossed lovers, quite enough to keep the dogged duo busy and provide hours of entertainment for this reader.

Shadow of the Past

The hero (if that is the right word) of Judith Cutler's new mystery Shadow of the Past is the Rev Tobias Campion Rector of Moreton St. Jude, a rural parish in early nineteenth century Warwickshire. Behind this modest front the Rev Tobias is in fact a titled gentleman, a member of a wealthy and influential familly inspired to put aside his priviledged background by his Christian faith. Thsi causes me to wonder if the Rev Tobias is the ancestor of Margery Allingham's Albert Campion also a titled member of an ancient familly who prefers to do his good works of detection as plain mister, but I digress. Lady Chase, one of Tobias' wealthy parishoners, is renowned for her generosity to the poor and as a leading figure in local society but her good works act as a cover for her grief at the loss of her son and heir, Hugo, who is missing believed killed in the Peninsular War. Her late husband's nephew, Sir Marcus Bramhall, then arrives with his familly and invites himself for a prolonged stay obviously expecting to inherit the title and estate as there is no news of Hugo despite the time and money Lady Chase has spent to discover his whereabouts or confirm his demise. When he declares his intention to bring a court case to have Hugo declared dead and himself the heir Tobias is moved to support his friend and parishoner. The discovery of the body of a man who could have been bringing information about Hugo and the disappearance of the Bramhall childrens governess wind up the plot nicely. This is a very entertaining mystery and brightened a couple of damp and gloomy winter afternoons for this reader.

Standard of Honour

Standard of Honour by Jack Whyte is the second volume of his Templar trilogy. The first volume, Knights of the Black and White, showed the founding of the Templar Order as a front organisation for the ultra-secret Brotherhood of Sion. Sixty years later the Templars are the premier Order of Chivalry in the Kingdom of Jerusalem with a steady stream of recruits and ample funds for equipment. The book opens with the catastrophic defeat of the Christian forces at the battle of Hattin, a defeat which owed as much to their inept leadership as to the generalship of Saladin. The action then moves to France where Henry St Claire is persuaded to return to his role as Master-at-Arms to his liege lord Richard Plantagenet, Duke of Aquitaine when Richard frees Henry's son Andre from a false charge of murder. Ascending the throne of England on the death of his father Henry the Second Richard agrees to head a new Crusade to re-capture Jerusalem with the St Claire father and son as part of his army. Andre, a member of the secret Brotherhood, becomes a member of the Templar Order and takes the opportunity to search for his cousin Andrew Sinclair of the Scottish branch of the familly who has been missing since the battle of Hattin. Jack Whyte has once again written a story that combines adventure with reflection on the deeper issues involved in any conflict. His portrait of King Richard is rather harsh, whilst an accurate description of his actions it does not make allowances for Richard's need to be a canny politician as well as a warrior. The times were governed by a brutal code and the penalties for failure were extreme. Richard's actions and strategems should be judged in the light of this. Whyte is not afraid to show the Christian knights as lacking in the area of personal hygiene and cultural niceties compared to their Muslim opponents which is true but no reference is made to the origin of much of these attitudes in the priests constant lectures on the "sin of pride" and "mortification of the flesh". None of which takes anything away from this novel as a really good read giving hours of pleasure. Roll on volume three!

Fire and Sword

Sometimes when picking up a book by an author with which one is familiar one is disappointed to find that the contents are not as anticipated. Having read all of Simon Scarrow's Roman novels I was taken aback when I found that Fire and Sword was about the Napoleonic wars. My momentary hesitation was overcome from the first page. I already knew that Mr Scarrow was a born writer and I was not surprised to be swept along by this narrative as I had been by his Roman stories. Fire and Sword is not just an adventure in the style of the Sharpe novels of Bernard Cornwell (another of my favourite writers) here Scarrow is dealing with characters whose lives and careers have been the subject of academic enquiry for near on two centuries and he shows us the men behind the uniforms with a sure hand. This book is the third volume of a quartet of novels which tell the story of the war between Britain and France as a conflict of two outstanding characters with remarkable similarities of background and personality. Napoleon Buonaparte cam from the minor nobility of Corsica and used the Revolution to force his way up the political ladder his ambition hardened by the real and perceived slights he had received at the hands of the old nobility. Arthur Wellesley was one of five children of a minor Anglo-Irish nobleman driven by a culture of duty and public service and a certainty that his destiny is to protect Britain from the threat of Napoleon. The book opens with Napoleon's coronation as Emperor of the French in the Cathedral of Notre Dame and follows him through the victory over the Austrians at Austerlitz, which many historians claim was the peak of his career, through to his disastrous decision to mire his forces in the Iberian peninsular. The recently knighted Sir Arthur Wellesley has just returned from conducting a brilliant campaign on the Indian sub-continent but is now caught up in the political attacks on his brother Richard who was Govenor General of India. The book the follows his struggle to convince the government that he can undermine Buonaparte by forcing him to divert men and material to fight a series of battles in Portugal and Spain and ends with his victory over Marshall Soult at Oporto. Napoleon is shown as falling into the trap of believing his own propaganda of invincibility. He is surrounded by a court of familly and old friends none of whom are willing or able to point out the flaws in his strategy and he strides confidently into a trap of his own devising and Sir Arthur Wellesley is there to close it on him. I really must obtain the first two volumes of this quartet prior to the publication of the fourth.

The Dig

In 1939 with the British people filled with apprehension by the newspapers stories of international tension in a quiet corner of Suffolk a discovery of national importance was made. In the grounds of Sutton House the largest boat burial in Europe was discovered. Thought to be the grave of an Anglo-Saxon King of East Anglia the contents, which had escaped the attentions of seventeenth century grave robbers, changed forever historians conception of the so-called Dark Ages. The Dig by John Preston is a vivid novelisation of the discovery of the Sutton Hoo treasure seen from the perspectives of key characters involved and is almost guaranteed to encourage the reader to further research.

Dawn of Empire

Dawn of Empire by Sam Barone is an excelent example of the historical novel that relies heavily on the writers imagination to fill in the gaps in the historical record. Sam Barone takes the reader back six thousand years to the first attempts to create settled communities in a land ranged by nimadic tribes of hunters and herdsmen. Every few years war bands of wild tribesmen sweep down from the steppe lands to pillage the defenceless settlements in the lands between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. This is the story of the settlement that decided to fight to defend what it had built. The village of Orak on the banks of the Tigris is a prosperous and growing settlement reborn from the ruins left by the violent tribe of the Alur-Meriki fifteen years before. Now word has reached Orak that the barbarians are driving down from the steppes again. Nicar, the leading man of the village, is determined that the cycle of re-building followed by destruction must end and commisions Eskar, a barbarian warrior to organise the defence. Sam Barone has written a fast paced narrative of war and adventure that had this reader hooked from the first page. On the book jacket historical novelist Diana Gabaldon compares this book to Wilbur Smith at his best and I cannot disagree with her. Just the book with which to pass a cold winters night.

The Butcher of Smithfield

The gathering of intelligence has always been of importance to governments through the ages and it was first put on a highly organised footing in England by Lord Walsingham in the reign of Queen Elizabeth the First. In the seventeenth century Cromwell, seeing Royalist plots in every corner, appointed John Thurloe as his spymaster and he soon gained a reputation for ruthless efficiency. After the Restoration King Charles the Second, a much more generous character than Cromwell, allowed Thurloe to keep the property that he had acquired under the republic and to live in retirement in Lincolns Inn. Susanna Gregory's creation ,Thomas Chaloner, is a former Thurloe agent and The Butcher of Smithfield is his third exploit. As the story opens Chaloner has just returned from Portugal where he has been sorting out a problem for the Queen and he hastens to the White Hall office of his employer the Earl of Clarendon. Instead of the back pay and expenses he expected he faces Clarendon's wrath. The Lord Chancellor is mightily put out that his spy has been away on business for the Queen as if Chaloner could have refused. Clarendon gives him the task of investigating the death of a shady solicitor supposed to have died from eating cucumber and puts a time limit on a successful conclusion failure to meet which will result in his dismissal. The case leads Chaloner through an overlapping series of inquiries which include horse thieves, protection rackets, the rivalry between the producers of the official newsbook and handwritten newsletters and, of course, murder. In addition he has to save a friend from the mercenary wiles of a gold-digging woman. It is expected in this kind of book that the hero should have to overcome all kinds of obstacles and hindrances from foe and friend alike but Chaloner seems particularly ill served. For example, though called upon for assistance by everyone of his acquaintance no one pays him and he is in such reduced circumstances that he goes for days without food depite doing a considerable amount of physical exertion. He continues in this hazardous mode of existance because he is supposed to be unable to obtain any other employment except that of spy which limits his opportunities. However, one would have thought that a man of his proven physical and intellectual capabilities would have been able to find alternative employment both more congenial and rewarding but then, of course, one would be deprived of these very entertaining books.

Black Butterfly

Since James Bond became an icon of a life of luxury and adventure there have been several attempts to "send up" this type of fiction and Black Butterfly is Mark Gatiss' contribution. His hero is Lucifer Box the aging head of a secret government department known as the Royal Academy. His code name is Joshua Reynolds. The Academy is due to be absorbed into MI6 as part of an efficiency drive but Box is determined to have one last adventure. He gets the chance when the fiendish organisation ACRONIM developes a psychedelic drug from the wings of the Black Butterfly and plan to drug all the members of the Scout Movement by putting it in their orange squash. Box frustrates their plan in a series of Pythonesque adventures which proved an amusing read if one accepts such things as Box's Istanbul contact being a Turkish Geordie named Whitley Bey and that he has a son named Christmas - Christmas Box geddit!

The Ivory Dagger

The country house murder was for decades the mainstay of British crime fiction and amongst it's best practitioners was Patricia Wentworth. The Ivory Dagger, published and set in the early nineteen fifties is a good example of the final years of this popular genre. The story begins with the efforts of Lady Sybil Dryden to force her step daughter Lila into a marriage with the wealthy Sir Herbert Whitall who is well known for his large collection of valuable ivories and his even larger collection of enemies. Lila, who is far from being the sharpest knife in the box, is incapable of standing up to Lady Dryden despite the encouragement of her cousin Ray Fortescue. The return from America of Bill Waring, who was under the impression that he was engaged to Lila, prompts Lady Dryden to move her to Sir Herberts country house and bring the wedding forward. However, following a small dinner party Sir Herbert is found stabbed to death with the ivory dagger of the title. Enter Miss Silver who takes a far more prominent part in this story than in any of the other Wentworths I have read. Also called in is Inspector Frank Abbott of Scotland Yard, a regular partner for Miss Silver. This is just the book to put ones feet up with a glass of something and forget about the economy for a few hours.

The Horse Coin

David Wishart is the author of the marvellous Marcus Corvinus detective stories but in The Horse Coin Rome's answer to Lord Peter Wimsey does not appear. This story is set in the newly conquered province of Britain and deals with the Iceni revolt lead by the charismatic Queen Boudica. The trouble starts with the death of Prasutagus King of the Iceni. He has made a will making the Emperor Nero co-heir to his property hoping that this will guarantee the status of his two young daughters as heirs in their own right. Knowing that Nero was always short of money Catus, the Provincial Procurator, sends one of his deputies, Homullus, to squeeze every sesterce out of the Iceni. At this time the Provincial Governor, Paullinus, decides to subdue the tribes to the north west of the province and takes the bulk of his forces on a prolonged campaign into Snowdonia and on to the Isle of Mona (Anglesey) which is the main base of the Druid religion in Britain. Usually the Romans were perpared to tolerate the religious practices of any people that they conquered and often adopted foreign gods into their own Pantheon. Such gods as the Egyptian Isis and the Persian Mithras gained large followings among the Romans themselves. During the conquest of Gaul the Romans encountered the Druids and decided that this was one sect whose practices the Empire could well do without. Druidism was outlawed and any Druid priests that were captured were executed as were anyone found sheltering them. On the Continent Druidism was virtualy extinct and it was in order to wipe out it's last stronghold on Mona as much as to secure the provincial borders that Paullinus launched his campaign. It was at this point that Homullus, who had encountered some obstruction from Queen Boudica, decided to get tough and precipitated the revolt which destroyed Colchester and London and resulted in around one hundred and fifty thousand deaths before it was all over. The enduring popularity of stories about the Romans can be seen in any bookshop or library and the story of the Iceni revolt has been tackled by some of the best historical novelists. Until now I would have put "Imperial Govenor" by the late George Shipway as the best novelisation of this grim chapter in our island's history but in The Horse Coin David Wishart has written a book that is at least it's equal or arguably better. I believe that I have read all of the books by David Wishart but to me this is his best.

Devil May Care

Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks was specialy commisioned by the owner of the late Ian Fleming's literary estate to commemorate his birth on 28th May 1908. The idea was to ignore the plethora of film versions and return to the time of the Cold War in which Fleming set his original novels. Furthermore Faulks was supposed to copy the writing style of Fleming and was no doubt entrusted with this task because of the high regard in which he is held in literary circles. Whether he did manage to copy Fleming's style I could not say as it has been many years since I read one of his books. However, there is a world of difference between the novels for which Faulks is justly famous and the kind of action adventure story with which Fleming thrilled the nation's readers. Faulks includes all the usual ingrediants, a villain with unusual physical characteristics, a murderous assistant, a plot of world-ranging scope and an organisation exploiting cutting edge technology. To counter this Bond has a Walther PPK, a handful of local agents and a beautiful girl. So far so good. Unfortunately in Faulks hands it does not quite work. Perhaps it was Fleming's background of genuine intelligence work that gave him the edge over someone who only has his imagination to go on but I just did not get the kick out of Devil May Care that I did out of Fleming's books. That being said I still read it through to the end which I would not have done had it been truly disappointing. A good try.

Folly du Jour

Folly du Jour is the last of the Commander Joe Sandilands novels by Barbara Cleverly before she decided to commence a new series featuring an archeologist. I am sure that all her readers can appreciate her desire to try something new after writing seven of her superior Sandilands detective stories but I am also sure that they hope that she will return to chronicling his career in the near future. In Folly du Jour Sandilands flies to Paris to attend an Interpol conference when he is caught up in a spectacular murder commited in a box at the Follies Bergere. The victim is an English Baronet and former officer in the Indian Army and the accused is his old friend and mentor from his time in India, Sir George Jardine. Initialy reluctant to become involved Sandilands is shocked to see Sir George has been roughly handled by the French detective in charge of the case and annoyed when his efforts to help Sir George are frustrated by his reluctance to give Joe the full story of what happened. This is just the start of a well wrought narrative, lubricated by a boxful of red herrings, that kept this reader guessing until the end. Miss Cleverly conveys a wonderful sense of Paris in the 1920's and even introducing famous characters such as Charles Lindbergh and Josephine Baker is accomplished smoothly. It is not often that a writer can resist flourishing the amount of background research that Miss Clverly has obviously done and allow it to flow as a natural part of the narrative but manage it she does. Another good 'un.

The Knights of the Black and White

The Knights of the Black and White is the first volume of a trilogy on the history of the Knights Templar. In this first volume the author, Jack Whyte, poses some very interesting propositions such as that the mediaeval aristocracy of Southern France was descended from Jewish refugees from the destruction of Jerusalem by General, later Emporer, Titus in AD70. The people settled in Gaul and converted to Christianity under Emporer Constantine. Known to one another as the Friendly Famillies they keep alive their heritage by means of a secret Order that sounds something like the Masons. Every generation the senior members of the Order choose one young knight from each familly to be inducted and the Order is so secret that even other members of their familly do not know of it's existance. Not even the females! Well, it is a novel. Members of the Order are taught a very different story of the life of Jesus Christ than that which is preached by the Church and they accuse St. Paul of re-writing Christ's history and message for his own ends. When the Pope calls for a war against the Turks to free the Holy City of Jerusalem the Order sends some of it's knights along in the hope of recovering an ancient treasure, which may or may not consist of valuable objects, which was hidden by the priests beneath the Temple of Herod before it was destroyed. Mr Whyte goes into the alternative history of the founding of Christianity in some detail but whether this comes from his research or his immagination I do not have the knowledge to judge but what I can say is that he tells a most entertaining story and I look forward eagerly to the second volume.

The Minutes of the Lazarus Club

The Minutes of the Lazarus Club is the first novel by Tony Pollard and a very impressive debut it is as he skillfully blends a police search for a serial killer with a plot to supply secret weapons. This all takes place against the background of the Victorian Golden Age of invention and inovation. The iconic engineer I.K. Brunel completing work on the Great Eastern, the biggest ship in the history of the world at that time, finds time to attend the anatomy lectures of Dr George Phillips at St Thomas hospital and invites him to attend a meeting of his secretive club. There Phillips meets Charles Darwin, Joseph Bazalgette the engineer responsible for London's sewage system, Charles Babbage maker of the world's first mechanical computer and many other leading figures of Victorian industry. Their stated aim is the advancement of science but soon Phillips is aware that some have more sinister motives. Dr Pollard has written an excellent novel by turns intellectual puzzle and action adventure all on a secure basis of historical research. This is a first class piece of entertainment.

Empire of Sand

When I was a boy I was given a book of real life adventure stories, a popular present for young boys at the time. On the front cover was a picture of a handsome man dressed in white robes. He was riding a camel and, revolver in hand, was leading a charge against some rather nondescript infantry. None of the other illustrations in the book came close to matching the thrilling romanticism of that wonderful image and from that moment Lawrence of Arabia became my hero. Since that time I have read many books and articles about Lawrence, a far more complex character that any writer would dare to invent. In his excellent novel Empire of Sand Robert Ryan comes closer to revealing the different aspects of a man at once scholar, dreamer and man of action than most writers have achieved. As the novel opens Lawrence is confined to the map room at Intelligence HQ in Cairo, his superiors wary of his eccentricities although impressed by his understanding of the Arabs and their land. In 1915 an undercover war is raging across the Arabian lands of the tottering Ottoman Empire with agents of the British and the Germans seeking to use the desert tribes as guerrila forces. The most successful German agent is Wilhelm Wassmuss, known by the Arabs as Woss Moss, who has secured an alliance with the Tangistani bedu by supplying them with modern German rifles and other war material. His success has come to the notice of the War Office in London and they despatch Captain Harold Quinn, a man versed in the arts of undercover warfare, to kill him. Quinn and Lawrence assemble a small group to cross the Persian desert and attack Wassmuss at the fort of his Tangistani allies and locks these two outstanding agents in a thrilling battle of bullets and wits. Whilst based on real characters and incidents Ryan's story is entirely fictional but he uses this to illuminate the facets of an amazing character who, for four years, blazed across the Middle East like a comet. If Lawrences life ended in tragedy this was as much due to the betrayals of his political masters as to his inner turmoil. Robert Ryan has written a first class novel that is both entertaining and informative.

Silent in the Grave

It is well known that European aristocracy holds a fascination for Americans, unfortunately very few of them show any real appreciation of their hierarchy, attitudes and lifestyle. At last, in Texan writer Deanna Raybourn's Silent in the Grave we have someone who has taken the trouble to do sufficient background research to produce not only a good page turning mystery but one which reads as though it were written by an Englishwoman. I can give no higher praise. (Patronising Bastard!) The novel begins with the death of Sir Edward Grey, a well known figure in London Society in the penultimate decade of the nineteenth century. Sir Edward comes from a familly with a history of illness and the familly doctor promptly issues a death certificate stating natural causes. However, his widow Lady Julia, receives a visit from Nicholas Brisbane who her late husband had commissioned to investigate a series of threatening letters that had been sent to him. Brisbane suggests that Sir Edward's death may be suspicious. Lady Julia is outraged and dismisses Brisbane but later she is forced to realise that her husband had a life of which she knew nothing and which could indeed have lead to his murder. Determined to find the truth however painful she visits Brisbane and engages him to undertake an investigation though by now the trail is cold. Their search for answers is difficult and dangerous and brings them face to face with unpleasant truths about her late husband and the Grey familly that are difficult for her to accept. Nonetheless Lady Julia presses on to a dramatic and surprising conclusion to this excellently told story. Silent in the Grave is Miss Raybourn's first novel and I look forward eagerly to her next though I must warn her that here she has set a standard that it will not be easy to maintain.