I am most impressed by Mallinson's style. He writes in appropriate language so that it truly reads like a period novel. His language is rich and he doesn't pander to people who can't be bothered to reach for the dictionary. It's as good as Flashman in that regard (although these books are *deadly* serious!). Sometimes I felt he 'protested too much' in his insistence on including period details - there was some repetition of people reading the works of 'Miss Austen' which, although accurate, seemed a little forced to me. But this is a minor irritation, and on the whole the period flavour comes across perfectly.

I haven't yet made up my mind whether I feel Mallinson writes action very well. In the previous books I found his description of the fights rather ponderous, and not really very exciting. Such passages are better in this book, but I'm not yet convinced. I don't hold this against him - he does it well enough that it's not laughable (as in many, many books), and he's clearly a good enough writer to get away with it.

I shall certainly be reading more of the Hervey novels - if you like 19th century military exploits, then they shouldn't be ignored!