Great

Great

hardback

Published in 1982, Anthony Price’s The Old Vengeful is a cold war spy novel with all the fast plotting, unexpected twists, faceless agencies, and wryly literate prose we came to enjoy from the genre. I have always had a soft spot for Le Carre and the like, and would in any case have read this with pleasure. I picked the book up, however, because I am a lover of Historic Naval Fiction and the cover picture (on the American edition) of a warship of the Napoleonic era caught my eye. Was there anything for a reader of HNF? Sure enough, while the plot unfolds in the here and now (well, 1982 seems contemporary to us oldsters), there is a good bit of naval history and adventure for the aficionado of HNF. It seems the Russian plot our heros are trying to foil is wrapped up in a warship, the HMS Vengeful. Problem is, there have been twelve Vengefuls through history and we don’t know which one holds the key. Most of the attention focuses on Vengeful number seven, a frigate. In 1812 she defeated a French frigate before being wrecked on the French coast. The crew was captured and imprisoned in Alsace. A group of them escaped, trying to make their way across France to freedom.

1812 was a pivotal year for Napoleon, and somehow these escaping English sailors are important to his grand strategy of conquering Russia and beyond. Why did Napoleon move heaven and earth to find these humble sailors? How does their story relate to the current KGB operation? Historian/spy Paul Mitchell is sent to find out, along with the daughter of the commander of Vengeful number eleven and a minder who reports to the rival of spymaster David Audley.

As Mitchell & Co move across England and France, dodging the KGB, the DST and old-fashioned gangsters, they uncover more and more about both the events of 1812 and their current situation. HNF fans are treated to a good deal of information about the French treatment of captured sailors, naval prisons and escapes. The line from Alsace to the Channel crosses some of the bloodiest battlefields of World War I, and Price makes sure readers don’t forget 1914-1918 as well.

I’m glad the cover picture caught my attention (even if it is an image of a brig, not a frigate). The Old Vengeful offers clean writing, classic nothing-is-as-it-seems plotting, and both details and strategy from the Napoleonic wars that may be new to even veteran readers of HNF. ( )

SEL loved Price. ( )