A Close Run Thing

By: Allan Mallinson

Narrated by: Errick Graham

Length: 14 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

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

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.

A little disappointed

I’m writing this as an admirer of the Richard Sharpe series, so this might be a little unjust. Anyway, my criticism:
1. I thought the book lacked excitement. I never got the feeling of “being in the action” so to speak as I do when reading the Sharpe books. For example, Instead of saying “Matthew Hervey closed on the French, sword aiming for his enemy, screaming his battle cry as he rammed the cold steel through the Frenchman’s neck,” we would have something mild like “Hervey watched the dreadful carriage. It was unlike anything he had scene. The Frenchman’s attack had been quick, and he felt lucky to be alive.” In other words, we are told that he fought the French, but there’s no up-close in the moment descriptions of his fighting. I realize this is a stylistic difference, I just find the former more captivating. I don’t think Hervey tells
2. There’s not really a single unifying theme from beginning to end (other than Hervey’s desire for promotion) that the story revolves around, although this did not really bother me too much.
3. Hervey needs a companion. I realize he gets engaged to his sweetheart Henrietta Lindsey, and Sgt. Armstrong appears to be Hervey’s Patrick Harper, but the dialogue feels forced. The strict formality smothers any kind of intimacy, amorous or of friendship.
4. There’s not a real antagonist. General Slade is an irritating nuisance to Hervey’s career, but he is not the cunning villain whom Hervey must defeat.
My Praise:
1. The descriptiveness is excellent. The authors knowledge of smaller incidents, such as the troubles in Ireland, is impressive.
2. The female characters are more than the “bond girl” variety found in the Sharpe series.
3. The formal way of talking, though overdone, is refreshing at times.

Anyway, it’s a good story, but the authors style is far more akin to Jane Austin than Bernard Cornwell. If that’s what you like, you will love this book.

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. 

Knockoff Bernard Cornwell.

This guy is not a bad writer. He is decently proficient in the aptitude of pacing and has the acceptable level of proficiency with how dialogue should work, character to character, scene to scene...BUT... He has completely fucked up in making the main character of this book a do-nothing-wrong, goodie-two-shoes, anglo-centric hero.

This book is like many others written by English authors, with exactly the same case of Hero-subjugation. In this case its the abasement to the legendary duke of wellington..

In relation to Ireland: .. This author should have been censored in relation to his presumption.

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.

Detailed and well written

I discovered this detailed and well written series while searching reddit for something similar to Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin series and it has done an excellent job of scratching that itch. Much like Aubrey/Maturin the books are good but the series really finds it's feet around book 3 and 4. I really enjoy the feeling of being transported to another time and place that such a detail oriented author can create. Would highly recommend despite some specific equestrian vocabulary, as (again, like Aubrey/Maturin's technical sailing vocabulary) it provides depth but the overall idea is still comprehensible. I really hope you enjoy these as much as I have been.