Napoleon’s Run (The William John Hazzard Series, Book 1)
This is a Napoleonic spy story set against the background of Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt. Our hero, William Hazzard, is sent to find the French fleet before it arrives at its secret destination. The details of how he is to achieve this are conveniently vague, but fortunately the French leave a trail of agents, whom he kills one by one until he catches up with Napoleon in Malta.
The plot is fiendishly complicated, but the story keeps moving along with lots of dramatic action and a steadily increasing body count. It’s a heap of fun, and I was enjoying it, not least because I was fascinated to see how the various threads of the story could be tied together into a neat resolution. Sadly, there is no neat resolution, but this is not a standalone novel but the first episode in a serial. If you enjoy reading books in a series that haven’t got a neat ending, then this won’t bother you. This lack of conclusion, for me, detracts a little from the narrative, which is unfortunate because if you like action-adventure, this book has much to commend it.
