A Close Run Thing

By: Allan Mallinson

Narrated by: Errick Graham

It's 1814, and Napoleon is hard-pressed to defend France from a combination of Russia, Prussia, Austria and Britain. Nor is he the only one in a quandary.

Matthew Hervey, a young British cornet, is in a rather unusual situation. As far as he knows, it's highly irregular to be arrested on a battlefield after a successful action.

Still, it's hardly the first time politics has interrupted war, and as Hervey's career progresses, he increasingly balances both, sometimes more successfully than others!

©2000 Allan Mallinson (P)2017 W.F. Howes Ltd

Close, oh so close

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It is well researched, well written and the narrator was an excellent story teller. It was well worth the listen and probably will be worth listening to again. There are times in the story that you feel you can actually step directly into history and into the story. Allan Mallinson deserves a lot of credit and appreciation for recreating this time of history for us. I thought long and hard about giving him a five star review, it was indeed a close run thing, but while it was close it was for me at least not close enough.
I love historical fiction, and this story was good, but it wasn’t griping and page turning. I never once felt the story was boring or desired to stop listening, I never once regretted selecting the book, and I am glad I listened, but I regret to say I never felt I needed to hear what would next. The descriptions paint a clear picture of the landscape, life and times. You can absolutely walk off the page into the story. But, if you are coming into this book from the Cornwell’s Sharpe series, Mathew Hervey is not Richard Sharpe, nor is the story fast paced in the manner of Cornwell’s books. I liked a Close a Run thing well enough to buy the second book in the series, but despite this I have not felt compelled enough to listen to what happens to Mathew Hervey in his next adventure. One day I will find out what happens but not just yet.

Excellent

I much prefer action novels but this book can certainly be recommended for the accuracy of the horrors and stupidity of the English aristocracy through the 19th century. It is very readable and the author is to be commended for his excellent writing.

Fascinating detail

A great worm’s eye view of the events leading to Waterloo. No bodice ripping. The main character is not a thug, functioning sociopath or outlaw. For a change. 

History

I wish it would have started earlier in the war other then that very well done

A Historical Military Story

This is book one of a series about Cornet Matthew Hervey. In this book Hervey is with the Duke of Wellington’s Army in the Napoleonic Wars. The time frame is about 1814 to 1815. We follow Hervey through the Peninsular Campaign to Waterloo.

The book is well written and meticulously researched. Mallinsen provides detailed information about the period as well as life in the army. The book is weak on dialog. The author has done an excellent job in putting the reader into the period of history. I assume that Mallinsen is setting the scene and building his background for the series. Hervey is a Calvary officer and the author provides a great deal of information about Calvary horses and their care during the Napoleonic Wars. I was impressed with the section about the battle of Waterloo; Mallinsen did an excellent job describing the battle. Napoleon came so close to winning. It started me thinking about what Europe and the world would be like today if he had won. The author is a retired British Army Officer who turned to writing both non-fiction and fiction. I enjoyed this and will be looking for book two of the series.

The book is fourteen and a half hours. Errick Graham did a good job narrating the book. Graham is an actor and audiobook narrator.