Shred of Honour: A Markham of the Marines Novel

This new addition to the lively subgenre of adventure novels set around the time of the Napoleonic Wars is the first of three in the Markham of the Marines series originally published in the U.K.; it travels familiar ground, but acquits itself honorably enough. In 1793, when Lt. George Markham takes up a low-ranking commission in the English army, the French Revolution is only four years old and Napoleon is still a French artillery officer. On board the ship carrying Markham's regiment to the siege of Toulon, the officer's reputation is much discussed. Markham is an Irish bastard (son of an English general), ""probably a Papist, certainly a rake,"" and labeled a coward because of a mysterious court martial 12 years earlier. Though no one trusts him to command even his ground troops after he is implicated in the death of another officer, Markham finds himself in charge of a ""mixed bag of Lobsters and Bullocks""--marines and army--defending Toulon from the onslaught of French troops. Once on the ground, the plot complications are worthy of Baroness Orczy or either Dumas. Is that silent boy the Dauphin? Are those anti-Terror bourgeois really Directorate spies? Has Markham seen a glimpse of incest? There is plenty of swashbuckling action and gory detail, and events include amorous dalliances, British snobbery and conflicting loyalties leading to diverse betrayals. A loving history of the English rifle ""Brown Bess"" and cameo appearances by Sir Sydney Smith, Horatio Nelson and Napoleon himself flesh out the military plot, which culminates in a daring last-minute escape from the victorious French. The writing is serviceable, and genre fans will probably enjoy the tale, as long as they don't expect anything near the level of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels. (Oct.)