Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood is to all intents and purposes a Sharpe clone. McGee has even given him a backstory as a 'chosen man' at Talavera. I read up on this and he said that it was important but this importance rings a little false in the final pages of the novel and really could have taken a variety of other forms.The story was solid enough though with Hawkwood assigned to trace the whereabouts of a stolen dispatch case containing plans for a secret weapon of which I'll say no more apart from there is some factual evidence towards this device having been attempted at the time - who'd have thunk it?
The book takes us on a whistle-stop tour of London at the beginning of the 19th century, in particular down the many inhospitable back streets where Hawkwood's ex-Sergeant, Harper - oops! sorry - ex-Sergeant Jago rules the roost.
It was an OK read. It cost bugger all from Lidls and passed a couple of hours in a hassle free manner.
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