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Captain Rawson #5
A Very Murdering Battle: A dramatic adventure for Captain Daniel Rawson
It is 1709, and Europe is in the midst of the coldest winter for a century. France is suffering profoundly: with her people starving and her army rattled by mutiny and desertions, King Louis XIV is at The Hague, searching for peace with the English on almost any terms. To assist these negotiations, the Duke of Marlborough sends Captain Daniel Rawson on a dangerous mission to Paris to seek out a package of vital information that could secure an advantageous peace deal for England.
Yet when the peace talks collapse, Daniel is again embroiled in a dangerous adventure behind enemy lines And as the French army regains its strength and a bloody encounter looms at Malplaquet, Daniel faces his most murdering battle yet.
Yet when the peace talks collapse, Daniel is again embroiled in a dangerous adventure behind enemy lines And as the French army regains its strength and a bloody encounter looms at Malplaquet, Daniel faces his most murdering battle yet.
382 pages, Paperback
First published November 28, 2011
About the author
Edward Marston
257 books480 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
A pseudonym used by Keith Miles
AKA A.E. Marston
Keith Miles (born 1940) is an English author, who writes under his own name and also historical fiction and mystery novels under the pseudonym Edward Marston. He is known for his mysteries set in the world of Elizabethan theatre. He has also written a series of novels based on events in the Domesday Book, a series of The Railway Detective and a series of The Home Front Detective.
Series contributed to:
. Malice Domestic
. Crime Through Time
. Perfectly Criminal
A pseudonym used by Keith Miles
AKA A.E. Marston
Keith Miles (born 1940) is an English author, who writes under his own name and also historical fiction and mystery novels under the pseudonym Edward Marston. He is known for his mysteries set in the world of Elizabethan theatre. He has also written a series of novels based on events in the Domesday Book, a series of The Railway Detective and a series of The Home Front Detective.
Series contributed to:
. Malice Domestic
. Crime Through Time
. Perfectly Criminal
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 26, 2021
This is the fifth instalment in the Captain Daniel Rawson series and once again we see our hero undertaking dangerous missions behind enemy lines but unfortunately his character development seems to have come to a complete halt.
Now I'm all for 'boys own stories' but quite frankly the title of this book seems a complete misnomer. Whilst the text runs along at a reasonably good pace and it is an easy read there is also a lot of repetition of previous books and the author seems to have given up totally on the idea of writing action scenes. A large portion of this book deals with Daniel in Amsterdam trying to catch thieves who have stolen a tapestry intended for his Commander-in-Chief, Lord Marlborough, from his love interest's father's workshop whereas the battle of Malplaquet, one of the bloodiest that ever occurred in Europe, is all wrapped up in 10 or so pages. All a little disappointing.
Once again Marston gives a decent background into a War and period that I know little but this is not enough to raise it above the ordinary.
Now I'm all for 'boys own stories' but quite frankly the title of this book seems a complete misnomer. Whilst the text runs along at a reasonably good pace and it is an easy read there is also a lot of repetition of previous books and the author seems to have given up totally on the idea of writing action scenes. A large portion of this book deals with Daniel in Amsterdam trying to catch thieves who have stolen a tapestry intended for his Commander-in-Chief, Lord Marlborough, from his love interest's father's workshop whereas the battle of Malplaquet, one of the bloodiest that ever occurred in Europe, is all wrapped up in 10 or so pages. All a little disappointing.
Once again Marston gives a decent background into a War and period that I know little but this is not enough to raise it above the ordinary.
April 18, 2016
Many elements of the whole Captain Rawson series disappoint me. They say you ought not to judge books by their covers. For a series set during the War of the Spanish Succession you may be forgiven for wondering why the cover features uniformed soldiers from the Napoleonic period. On the whole it's a fairly linear two-dimensional plot with very little sense of the universe beyond the worlds of the main characters. Sharpe quality adventure this is not. There is very little evidence of any real historical research of the type that would give you a true feel for the period. For example, when encountered French soldiers are described multiple times as wearing blue coats. Prior to the French Revolution (and this series is set several decades prior to that revolution) gray-white was the primary colour for French uniforms. There are also several references to Captain Rawson leading a battalion. A captain commands a company not a battalion. Niggles like this may seem minor but they serve to undermine the suspension of disbelief so critical to good story telling. Language is also a factor in that. In one scene we have our eponymous hero setting fire to a waste-paper basket to cover an escape. Waste-paper baskets enter the vocabulary in the Victorian period. During the time this book was set paper was still a fairly valuable commodity; waste not, want not! All in all the five books in the series give one the impression that they are very much a hack job. Someone has seen the market for military fiction and has sought a slice of that action. I really think the original intention was to set the series in the Napoleonic era but, for whatever reason, a last minute switch was made to the army of Malborough. Setting the historical inaccuracies aside for a moment, there is a certain degree of action and adventure in the books. It's very easy reading with the kind of vocabulary that makes me wonder if it was written for the teenage market. Every character is a stereotype and every scene a pastiche. I read the series as I wanted a taste of the War of the Spanish Succession. What I got instead was a generic boys own adventure series that could be transported to most historical periods. After putting the last book down I've had to resort to reading Patrick O'Brian's Post Captain to remind myself what proper historical fiction should be like.
November 27, 2021
This book made great reading, detailing the part played by allied troops who fought during the French revolution. Historical events came to life with great imagination, historical accuracy and clever writing. Not sure about the love story that unfolded, though. I don't want to be too damming of the plot as I am a writer myself and know how difficult it can be to put together a believable storyline working with constraints. However, the pages kept turning, which says a lot about its readability.
December 9, 2018
So, so bad. Constantly repeating the same back stories, long tale of a missing tapestry so final huge battle is rushed in the last few pages, another weird stalker for Amalia......calling it drivel would be almost to kind. Sorry.
February 18, 2019
I've now read all five of the books in this series. They cost just £1.66 each (or three for £5.00 in the discount section) at my local bookshop, which was probably the main reason why I ended up with so many.
As another reviewer said, it seems as though this series was written for teenagers. The dialogue is stilted. The characters seem like cardboard cutouts. Previous events or occurrences are constantly reviewed by the author. The punctuation is quite bad, with a great excess of run-on sentences. The themes are repetitive. E.g., in, I believe, every single book except for the last one, there is an assassin trying to kill Rawson. In fact, in the fourth book there are actually two different assassins on his trail. Also, in nearly every book, his love interest is either kidnapped (to force Rawson out into the open) or in some sort of peril from an obsessed admirer.
The tremendous fuss everyone makes over the stolen tapestry in the final book is almost comical. Marlborough himself is on the verge of leaving his winter quarters to rush to Amsterdam to lead a search for his tapestry and has to be dissuaded from doing so. Instead, he sends Rawson to investigate the theft. One would think that this was a matter for the local police or magistrate, but I guess it was too good an opportunity to pass up for Rawson to play the role of a first-time detective.
As has been remarked before, Marston is not an author who has a good sense of the time and history of the era he is writing about, or at least not this particular era. He makes the hilariously amazing error of having his tapestry thieves issue a ransom demand for the astronomical amount of £50,000. This is equivalent in 2011, the year of publication, to £7,300,000.
No one in their right mind would issue a demand for this high an amount for a mere tapestry with no historical value as yet, and no one in their right mind would take the demand seriously. Yet Marlborough's wife, he fears, will be angry with him if he doesn't pay up. As the tapestry weavers still have the original designs for the tapestry, the logical solution, which no one gives any serious consideration to, would be to commission the weavers to do it again. But, no, Marlborough and his wife have to have the tapestry as soon as possible. They can't wait another six months or however long it would take to make it again, not when they've already got a big blank wall ready for where it is to hang.
Even worse, at one point one of the thieves laments that they didn't demand ten times their asking price, as Marlborough, he speculates, could easily afford it. In other words, £73,331,394.
Is even the "Mona Lisa" worth this much? Perhaps so, but to put this into perspective, a person could with this amount buy 73 mansions (at roughly a million pounds apiece) and still have money left over. Some mansions, in fact, depending on where they are, can be had for just half a million. So, would Marlborough really be expected to pay the equivalent of 73+ mansions for a replaceable tapestry? Or even, using the original £50,000 amount, 7+ mansions?
As another reviewer said, it seems as though this series was written for teenagers. The dialogue is stilted. The characters seem like cardboard cutouts. Previous events or occurrences are constantly reviewed by the author. The punctuation is quite bad, with a great excess of run-on sentences. The themes are repetitive. E.g., in, I believe, every single book except for the last one, there is an assassin trying to kill Rawson. In fact, in the fourth book there are actually two different assassins on his trail. Also, in nearly every book, his love interest is either kidnapped (to force Rawson out into the open) or in some sort of peril from an obsessed admirer.
The tremendous fuss everyone makes over the stolen tapestry in the final book is almost comical. Marlborough himself is on the verge of leaving his winter quarters to rush to Amsterdam to lead a search for his tapestry and has to be dissuaded from doing so. Instead, he sends Rawson to investigate the theft. One would think that this was a matter for the local police or magistrate, but I guess it was too good an opportunity to pass up for Rawson to play the role of a first-time detective.
As has been remarked before, Marston is not an author who has a good sense of the time and history of the era he is writing about, or at least not this particular era. He makes the hilariously amazing error of having his tapestry thieves issue a ransom demand for the astronomical amount of £50,000. This is equivalent in 2011, the year of publication, to £7,300,000.
No one in their right mind would issue a demand for this high an amount for a mere tapestry with no historical value as yet, and no one in their right mind would take the demand seriously. Yet Marlborough's wife, he fears, will be angry with him if he doesn't pay up. As the tapestry weavers still have the original designs for the tapestry, the logical solution, which no one gives any serious consideration to, would be to commission the weavers to do it again. But, no, Marlborough and his wife have to have the tapestry as soon as possible. They can't wait another six months or however long it would take to make it again, not when they've already got a big blank wall ready for where it is to hang.
Even worse, at one point one of the thieves laments that they didn't demand ten times their asking price, as Marlborough, he speculates, could easily afford it. In other words, £73,331,394.
Is even the "Mona Lisa" worth this much? Perhaps so, but to put this into perspective, a person could with this amount buy 73 mansions (at roughly a million pounds apiece) and still have money left over. Some mansions, in fact, depending on where they are, can be had for just half a million. So, would Marlborough really be expected to pay the equivalent of 73+ mansions for a replaceable tapestry? Or even, using the original £50,000 amount, 7+ mansions?
November 21, 2017
I enjoyed this novel but sadly each one in this series seemed to gradually become more about love relations rather than focused on the battle. I had the growing feeling that the whole series could have been completed in 3 books but were artificially extended to meet the publishers need for 5 books.
October 17, 2024
Although I enjoyed this book, I don't think the author enjoyed writing it. Unlike most of the historic fiction I've read he skips over the battle scenes and some of the "facts" are a tad off. Overall though I enjoyed the story I just prefer his detective series more.
March 25, 2018
This series is just garbage, I'm glad I've got to the end of the five I bought. Lazy writing from an experienced author.
June 18, 2022
I like history, thought I would enjoy this. I was wrong!
October 17, 2024
Last in a brilliant series
October 3, 2016
Yet another enjoyable read
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews