Allan Mallinson
Matthew Hervey is back and Alan Mallinson’s writing keeps improving. In “Regimental Affair” the newly-promoted Hervey finally enjoys newlywed bliss but has to cope with a cowardly, despotic superior and the strains of domestic duties against Luddites and smugglers.
I was worried that the lack of a major war would result in a dull book, but since, like Patrick O’Brian and unlike Richard Cornwell, Mallinson writes of character and society, this is an absorbing, though relatively tame book.
As much as I enjoy Mallinson’s writing, and as good as the book is, I didn’t like the ending. Mallinson does something terrible to Hervey and leaves the him - and the reader - hanging. I hope the next volume appears soon.