A Regimental Affair: 3 (Matthew Hervey)

"Highly entertaining, cleverly executed...[Mallinson's] deft treatment of the honorable yet never priggish Hervey makes him a hero readers will not only root for but follow into battle."
--Publishers Weekly

Praise for the novels of Allan Mallinson

HONORABLE COMPANY

"A marvelous read, paced like a well-balanced symphony...full of surprises and excitement."
-The Times

"First-rate historical fiction."
-Booklist

"A rousing tale of conspiracy [and] double-crossings...Hervey is an enduring hero."
-Publishers Weekly

A CLOSE RUN THING

"Now at last a highly literate, deeply read cavalry officer of high rank shows one the nature of horse-borne warfare....Colonel Mallinson's A Close Run Thing is very much to be welcomed."
-Patrick O'Brian, late author of the Aubrey-Maturin series

"Stirring...stimulating...entertaining...a richness of detail."
-USA Today

"A rousing...tale of valiant heroism and dashing derring-do."
-Kirkus Reviews

"Mallinson expertly captures both the glory and the gore of the battlefield in this sweeping saga....An exciting historical adventure steeped in authentic military detail."
-Booklist

"Mallison has cooked up a hearty, historical stew..."
-Kirkus Reviews

ALLAN MALLINSON’S A Close Run Thing and Honorable Company stirred readers and critics with the military adventures of young Captain Matthew Hervey at the Battle of Waterloo and amid the harsh terrain and treacherous intrigues of India. Now, in 1817, Hervey returns to an England whose hard-won peace is shaken by the distress and discord of its people. And even as he is caught up in the turbulent dawn of a new era, he must combat a deliberate attempt to orchestrate his own ruin.

The honors he won in India fell short of Captain Matthew Hervey’s deepest desire–to return to his beloved 6th Light Dragoons. But now circumstances allow him to resume command of the unit–and to marry the beautiful Lady Henrietta Lindsay, whom he has loved since childhood. Meanwhile, however, his soldier’s heart is pierced by the sight of men in British scarlet crippled in the service of king and country, now forgotten and cast off, reduced to begging and petty crime. It is no wonder that rabble-rousers clamor for reform and that lawlessness is erupting everywhere, from the cities to the countryside.

As for Hervey’s own cavalry, guarding Regency Brighton and ambushing French smugglers in midnight coves, he finds them, too, vastly changed. Their new lieutenant colonel, Lord Towcester, is a cold-eyed martinet–vain, inept, and bigoted–who cares less for the welfare of his men than for keeping the shine on their gleaming brass buttons. Moreover, it soon becomes clear that he will stop at nothing to bring about Hervey’s disgrace and downfall. For in this young officer, a war hero and former aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington, Towcester sees all that he himself once forfeited through cowardice.

But the scandal that haunts Towcester is an old and secret one and to expose it would cost Hervey his rank, the command of his beloved Sixth–and the means to support his radiant, passionate bride. Even the charming and determined Henrietta, not above a little politicking in high places to right wrongs, is unable to diplomatically put a stop to Towcester’s vendetta.

As the Industrial Revolution builds and food riots give way to rioting Luddite mobs, Hervey’s troop is posted to counter the threat of a general insurrection. But his field tactics and peacekeeping vision are jeopardized by enemies both within and without. And then fate calls his regiment to the dark frozen wastes of a distant frontier, where another people’s way of life is being destroyed by the march of change, and where tragedy and bloodshed will force a showdown between Hervey and his nemesis.

A Regimental Affair is a stunning tapestry of vivid characters, rousing action, and authentic historical detail that re-creates a world of polite English drawing rooms, poverty-stricken London streets, and frozen battlefields, where human passion and blind fate give birth to the destiny of a nation–and a hero.