Books I Read in May (Part 2)

Payment Upon Delivery by Hackley Hammett DNF 4%

Meh. Began with a recent college Spanish major grad, Jake Williams, returning to his home in a rather dumpy West Virginia town. Jake started a fight during a baseball game he was playing in in college and that’s a big black mark against him. He’s offered a job as a salesman for a Mexican plastics recycler over the phone, and takes it, even though he can’t find any mention of the company on the web. He then flies down to Buenos Aires to meet the owner at a conference for some reason… You can guess where this is going. I don’t think I want to read about a fellow that stupid. The boxed set of the first three books were free, if it sounds up your alley.

On Hadrian’s Secret Service by Gavin Chappell C

The story is set on the northern border of Roman controlled England in AD 120. We have a Roman soldier, Flaminius who is recruited into dealing with the troublesome tribes in the north of England, with the idea of keeping them from fighting each other at the instigation of a more powerful tribe in Caledonia. Competently written, the author does attempt to recreate the world of second century Britain, It moves along, and is set in a new, for me, time period. It was not quite as evocative as I would’ve liked, but I don’t have a visual mind. What keeps it an average story is that the main characters failed to really come completely to life for me. Certainly an effort was made to make them unique and motivated, but in the end, they seemed to be in the story mostly for the purpose of the story. Which is to say that they served to move the story along, rather than the story being about them, if you get my drift. But again, not for a lack of effort by the author, they just didn’t click with me. The other knock I have against this story, is that the author felt the need to insert the hero into a great event of history and make a critical difference, though I must admit that I haven’t been motivated to do the research to see if the event in the story was actually historic. In this case, the fate of the Roman Emperor in Rome hung in balance. While this made for a hectic, cinematographic ending, it was a little too over the top for me. But once again, that’s just me. I like things that are more understated. So final verdict; don’t let my C grade keep you from reading it. I think it is worth reading if you find the premise interesting, and there are more stories involving the characters set in other parts of the Roman Empire, if you find the story to your taste.

The Sands of Truth by Richard Townshend Bickers B-

A well researched, authentic sounding account of a British officer in one of the native regiments (a seypoy regiment) of the British army in India set in 1824. It begins with the mutiny of the 47^th Native Infantry in Barrackpore, who believe that they were to be sent to Burma via ship over the sea, which they believed would cost them their souls. They were actually being shipped in boats up river to save time marching. In the aftermath of the mutiny, that included the death of some fellow officers and their families, the story’s hero, Hugh Ramsey, a lieutenant in a companion regiment at the base, some of whom also mutinied, decides to change his career, despite soldiering being something of a family tradition. He agrees to become a partner with a Calcutta merchant and take a large consignment of goods to a native state some weeks of travel up the Ganges. This native state is ruled by a cruel and murderous leader, who, unknown to Ramsey, likely had the merchant’s first agent quietly killed, fearing him to be a British spy. Complications quickly arise beginning in Calcutta which changes their agreement. On the journey Ramsey loses half of the merchandise to pirates and thugs. Then on arrival in native state’s capital, he must deal with the intricacies the of native politics with a population divided by religious believes – Muslim and Hindu, of which we are given an extensive view of.

As I said at the beginning, this reads like a well researched story, likely drawn from contemporary accounts of life in India during the 1800’s. However those accounts come from its colonial rulers, and their view of India though the lens of their prejudices. How accurately those accounts reflect the total realities of India might be open to debate. I have little doubt that the practices described in the book – caste, child weddings and widowhood, beggars, traveling dancing girls/whores, and degenerate rulers did exist, but do not offer a complete picture of Indian culture. Plus there is the attitude of the author to be considered. While certainly not anti-Indian, he does paint his India with a lot of its unpleasant aspects. And treats sex and romance in a traditional way, i.e. while it is fine for Ramsey to sleep with a native, he must marry a European, or in this case, an American. Indeed, the romance aspect is a minor one, but handled in a very unconvincing and convenient fashion.

Bickers wrote this book in 1984, and is the author of over 50 novels, mostly military fiction, and mostly about war in the air. He knows how to write, and his story is intricate and engaging, with may twists and turns. Well worth reading if the story sounds appealing to you.

Murder at the Manor by Catherine Coles C+ (for what it is)

A Tommy and Evelyn Christie Mystery story, the first of at least six such stories. A classic/cozy country house whodunit. Written in 2020 and set in 1921, the story featured the husband and wife team of Evelyn and Tommy Christie, he an ex policeman recovering from a war wound, and she had also worked in the police department during the war. He is third in line to a title and an estate, and she the daughter of a retired MP, i.e. both with an upper class background. She helps makes scones in the kitchen, making this a cozy mystery. The story has all the tropes you would expect in a mystery set in an English country house, a murder, a flock of suspects, all with motives, bumbling constables (largely off screen in this story) that ends with a gathering in the study where Tommy and Evelyn explain whodunit. You probably shouldn’t waste any time detecting yourself, as Tommy and Evelyn, despite their name, not on the level of Agatha. Just go with the flow. If this sounds like your cup of tea, you should find it enjoyable.

Windrush by Malcolm Archibald B

This is book 1 of the Jack Windrush Series. Another story set in South Asia, this time in Burma in 1852. In this story opens in England with Jack Windrush, the funeral of his father, General Windrush. He expects to join the British regiment that his family has always joined, but instead, for his mother purchases a commission as an ensign in the 113^th Regiment, a regiment of ill repute for him, sending his younger brother to the family’s much more prestigious regiment. Jack’s regiment is stationed in India, and after traveling there, is given an independent command of a dozen men to serve in a war in Burma, and there, after a battle is sent on a mission to track down a cruel dacoit band (bandits) possibility led by a renegade British soldier.

I found this to be a petty entertaining book. It seems that between the Lonesome Dove saga, The Sands of Truth, and this book, I’ve been meeting some pretty cruel and bloodthirsty characters. I am not sure of the allure of writing these characters. Is it for historical accuracy or simply for thrills? Or both?

This is the first book of a long series – something like 15 books – covering Jack Windrush’s career as he moves up in the ranks of the Victorian era British Army while serving in its many wars, big and little. I enjoyed this book more than I did the Sharpe book I read, though, in this first installment, it doesn’t reach the heights of the Flashman saga.

The Lion At Sea A Kelly Maguire Thriller by Max Hennessy B

The story opens with Kelly Maguire as an ensign in the Royal Navy in 1911 and follows his career to the Battle of Jutland in 1916. Along the way he serves aboard a cruiser in the North Sea at the beginning of the war, in a submarine during the Dardanelles campaign, and aboard a destroyer during the fleet action known as the Battle of Jutland. This is the first of a three book series that was first published in 1977. Max Hennessy is the pen name of British novelist John Harris, who wrote some 76 novels under various pen names in various genre over a long career. I enjoyed this book, though it features the, serious, fearless, never say die hero for which George MacDonald’s Fraser’s anti-hero Flashman is an antidote for. I have long been a fan of the Royal Navy. Back when I was a teenager, my friends and I engaged in a naval race of our own. We each purchased 1:1200 metal models of WW2 warships of the fleet that we had chosen to collect in order to fight sea battles on our basement floor. We used rules invented by the SF author, Fletcher Pratt. I had chosen to built a Royal Navy fleet, which I still have, while my friends built the American, Japanese, French, and German navies. This is the second free book I’ve read which is a reissue of a book written 50ish years ago and are being used to draw readers into these older series books. The quality is there, making them a very good deal. Will I spend £4 for a digital copy of the next book? Well, no, but if you're not as cheap as me, the next book covers the inner war years from the Russian civil war and then on the China...