Another fine Pendragon adventure as the survivor of the Charge of the Light Brigade, now a Queen's Agent in Victorian London, England, fights to save the countries of Europe from a mad and sadistic revolutionary.
Victorian England of the mid-eighteen hundreds always gave a fine welcome to many visiting heads of state; the pomp and ceremony of the occasions were displayed in grand imperialistic style. But when the King of Montenegro came on a state visit the order of the day was different. For the King's bastard half-brother, James Krakar, an anarchist with half of Europe's fellow revolutionaries at his bidding, had also come to London, and from a seedy mews near the capital's new railway station was plotting to bloodily assassinate his royal relative.
That much the Queen's Intelligence Service knew from information brought hastily by Montenegran government spies within Krakar's organisation, but little else!
What Captain John Hawkdale Pendragon was to find out was that the assassination plot was only the tip of Krakar's ghastly iceberg. He is horrified to uncover a devilish intrigue involving the capture of almost an entire British cavalry regiment, and plans to make an audacious attack on the Royal Mint
that is currently producing a huge amount of gold coinage due for shipment to America.
Pendragon's desperate attempts to foil the scheme find him led by a very young, blind prostitute through the filthy and dangerous alleys of Bermondsey's 'Venice of drains', fighting a virtual naval battle side-by-side with contingent of American marines on the Thames below the Tower of London, and finally, after a horseback chase across the city at dawn, taking part in a full-scale cavalry battle on the normally quiet green meadows of St.James's Park.
The author's name Robert Trevelyan is a pseudonym of Robert (Bob) Forrest-. Webb, a versatile professional writer with more than 20 books published one of which was made into a Disney film, another into a stage musical that has run in almost continuous production for the past 37 years. Below are what some of the leading critics have had to say about his
Liverpool Daily ...shows a style and professionalism so often lacking in works of this genre.
Peterborough Evening It is written with a flare for capturing the whiff of smoke from a hot musket and the clash of steel from engaging swords.
Splendid adventurous stuff, fast moving and exciting.
The Well-worked theme, enlivened by some good technological detail and an attractive shabbiness of background and motive.
Fort Worth Forrest Webb novels have a lean, sinewy toughness and are written in a tight, terse style. Many critics have compared Webb to a young Hemingway. His Pendragon novels written as Trevelyan are jaunty, audacious and filled with deeds of derring-do, the best of their kind since Raphael Sabatini penned his swashbuckling tales several decades ago.
Erie An authentic period piece, laced with fast-paced action.
Saturday Review ....Plenty of action and some neat sleuthing.