On This Page
Description
Christmas 1826 finds Matthew Hervey of the 6th Light Dragoons alone and a prisoner. He is locked up in the notorious fortress of Badajoz, with little means of outside communication. He must escape, but as Hervey lays his plans his thoughts return to 1812, when as a young cornet he was with Wellington's Peninsular Army. Having survived the terrible retreat to Corunna, Hervey and the Sixth had gone on to endure three more years of fighting-only to be stalled at Badajoz. But what Hervey cannot show more know, as he paces his prison cell fourteen years later, is that in Lisbon, his close friends-including the beautiful Isabella Delgado-are rushing to his aid. And the escape they plan is audacious in the extreme. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Ok...I this is my first book by Allan Mallinson and it is #7 of a series. So there were a lot of flash back references in the book which made this read frustrating.
Our hero, Matthew Hervey, is in prison and as you read you are really not sure why. The book flashes forward and backward with the time difference diminishing as the book progresses. If I had read the other six preceding books I would probably have had a better idea as to what was going on but riding this book, at this time was a mistake.
When he writes on a thread that lasts more than 3-4 pages, it is very interesting but he has a bad habit of ending those chapters with a cliff hanger that is answered some time in the following chapter...of course disjointed in time. The show more cliff hangers are ok once in a while but get tiring as time goes on.
Mallison seems to be compared to Bernard Cornwell in his Sharpe series. Cornwell writing about the Napoleonic wars from the Redcoat/Rifles point of view while Mallison writes the same time period from a cavalry viewpoint. You don't feel as much a part of the action in this novel as you do with Cornwell. The battle scenes are adequate but with Cornwell you really feel a part of the battle...loading a musket in 20 secs like the rest.
Again I may be unfair reading this book out of order and I will track down the first in the series and see if things improve. show less
Our hero, Matthew Hervey, is in prison and as you read you are really not sure why. The book flashes forward and backward with the time difference diminishing as the book progresses. If I had read the other six preceding books I would probably have had a better idea as to what was going on but riding this book, at this time was a mistake.
When he writes on a thread that lasts more than 3-4 pages, it is very interesting but he has a bad habit of ending those chapters with a cliff hanger that is answered some time in the following chapter...of course disjointed in time. The show more cliff hangers are ok once in a while but get tiring as time goes on.
Mallison seems to be compared to Bernard Cornwell in his Sharpe series. Cornwell writing about the Napoleonic wars from the Redcoat/Rifles point of view while Mallison writes the same time period from a cavalry viewpoint. You don't feel as much a part of the action in this novel as you do with Cornwell. The battle scenes are adequate but with Cornwell you really feel a part of the battle...loading a musket in 20 secs like the rest.
Again I may be unfair reading this book out of order and I will track down the first in the series and see if things improve. show less
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
23 Works 1,856 Members
Allan Mallinson is a brigadier general in the British army and is currently military attache in Rome. (Bowker Author Biography)
Series
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2005
- People/Characters
- Matthew Hervey
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 115
- Popularity
- 282,826
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.87)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 10
- ASINs
- 3
