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.