An Untrustworthy Army
Spain during the Peninsular War was a battleground, as Napoleon’s army tried to conquer the country, and the English and Spanish tried to throw the French out. Spain was a dangerous place for any military man – but it was twice as dangerous when the English couldn’t rely on the Spanish troops showing up for any particular clash with the enemy.
Colonel Paul van Daan has survived the bloody battles for Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz, and Anne has survived kidnapping and rape by a French officer. Both follow Wellington to Salamanca, where the French are routed. But Wellington’s not invincible, and that fall he’s forced to retreat – and it’s the retreat that is the heart of the book. Bryant really excels at action scenes, and her description of the horrors of that retreat is extremely effective and affecting.
An Untrustworthy Army offers the reader vigorous action sequences and likeable characters. In this, the fifth book in the series, we meet not only old friends, but new acquaintances who I’m sure will become friends as well. This series continues to amuse and enlighten. When I don’t get to review them, I buy them, and I’m looking forward to the next installment.
Since these are historical novels that are as accurate as possible, I’ll warn you that Harry Smith marries Juana, a fourteen-year-old refugee from the Badajoz siege. Harry was born in 1787; Juana in 1798. So he was twenty-five when he married Juana. This is all historical fact (fun trivia: Harry and Juana became Sir Harry and Lady Smith – and Ladysmith in South Africa is named after her). If this bit of real history intrigues you, the novel The Spanish Bride by Georgette Heyer is about Harry and Juana.
