Sir Percy Leads the Band

The Baroness' usual blend of fact and fiction - the English priest brought in for the execution of Louis XVI is rescued by the League, and a tangle of love affairs lead to added complications for the Pimpernel. One of the 'traitor' stories - Percy, omniscient as he is, sees the betrayal coming, but is unbelievably patient and forgiving. He is described by the black sheep as an 'arrogant schoolmaster', which is about right. I enjoy reading about Percy and the League almost as much as I do Percy and Marguerite, and it's a mark of the Baroness' talent that both characters are effective and captivating as individual personalities, not merely a hero and his damsel or a heroine and her husband. Some secondary League members are featured - show more Jimmy 'Froggie' Holte, Tom Galveston, Everingham and Glynde, and of course St John Devinne; though not as deftly described as Percy or Chauvelin, the camaraderie between them is reassuring and fun at times. And poor old Chauvelin has a bad time of it in this adventure - I had visions of him spinning like a top in an effort to keep up with the Pimpernel, let alone one step ahead! Vastly entertaining. show less

I chose this as my first Scarlet Pimpernel sequel because it's set next after the original book. Let's just say lightning didn't strike twice in the same place. The writing was pretty bad, the plot wasn't gripping, and it was hard to care about the random new characters. Orczy does a better job at getting into the heads of female characters than male characters, which is a problem in a book like this where there's no Marguerite but lots of League members.