Undone by Fate’s Hand
Veronika Pelka very skilfully sets an adventure story and a murder mystery inside the larger tensions of Napoleon Bonaparte’s exile to the island of Elba in 1814.
Captain Alexander Dariusz Mazowski, the hero of Pelka’s Undone by Fate’s Hand, is a Polish veteran of Bonaparte’s earlier and dramatically unsuccessful invasion of Russia. Having successfully made his way back to Paris, Mazowski is deeply involved in his quest to unravel the mystery of his brother’s murder when he is approached clandestinely to participate in a plot to funnel money to the exiled former emperor, who is desperately planning to finance an escape from Elba and a return to power.
Pelka handles the interweaving of her two plot-lines with smooth confidence, lively dialogue, and a wide array of colorful characters, both real and invented. Mazowski himself tends a bit toward being a dull main character, but as compensation is the character of Simon August Delon, the Comte St.-Jeanne, scheming behind the scenes of the Congress of Vienna. Undone By Fate’s Hand brings its narrative to a very satisfying conclusion – it’s strongly recommended.
