The last of a long series involving the Plantagenet Palliser family.

This last of the Palliser series is much more entertaining than its predecessor, The Prime Minister. The Duke's son, Lord Silverbridge will remind the reader of a scaled-down Phineas Finn but, I think, more endearing (as Lady Mab has discovered). The Duke himself is more sympathetic than in the previous volumes. In The Prime Minister he was either being overshadowed by his wife, the formidible Glencora, or indulging in those bouts of self-pity and hand-wringing that made most everyone he knew want to slap him. He now has a world of hurt and trouble visited on him in this last Palliser novel, and deserves some measure of, if not sympathy, then at least empathy.

Mrs. Finn, previously Madame Max, gets once more to kick some Palliser butt, and it's highly enjoyable to watch (i.e., read). She reminds me somewhat of Martha Dunstable, later Mrs. Dr. Thorne, but less puckish.

Major Tifto is a quite satisfactory heel, and Dolly Longstaff, now 35-years-young, gets a few aristocratic zingers in. ( )