Edward Marston is mainly famous for his historical mysteries, which include the award-winning series about the Elizabethan theater. Recently, however, he has turned his attention to stirring tales of historical military adventure, and here is the second instalment in his Captain Rawson series. This time the gallant Captain goes on a dangerous undercover mission into enemy territory to rescue a spy in trouble. He must go to Paris, where Louis XIV has imprisoned Dutch tapestry maker Emanuel Janssen in the Bastille, and rescue him. Janssen also has a beautiful daughter staying in Paris eagerly awaiting news of her missing parent... Meanwhile, back at camp Rawson’s friend, Sergeant Welbeck, has troubles of his own in the shape of his young nephew, Tom, who has joined the army as a drummer boy.

I’ve never read a Marston novel yet and been bored, and this is no exception. There is something thrilling—or at least entertaining—happenings on every page of this book, and pages turned like lightening. The constant action negates the use of this author’s only irritating mannerism—those endless bickering conversations intoned in short, flat sentences. I’ve read better accounts of battles, but his account of the Battle of Ramillies is better than his overly brief one of Blenheim in the first book, so I can honestly say that writing this type of adventure story suits him almost as well as crime fiction. Anybody who thinks that this type of novel is going to be all blood and guts will either be relieved or disappointed, as Marston manages to omit most, if not all, of that; and ultimately I was reminded of the fiction penned by such authors as Sabatini who wrote in a different age. But I rather think that was what was intended to catch a wider audience, and this has every sign of shaping up to be a very entertaining series.