The Fifth Richard Karelius Adventure
In the summer and autumn of 1813, the sun of Napoleonic glory is already low in the sky. The French Emperor’s enemies converge on Leipzig for what surely will be last great battle of the war. Amongst them are the mighty: the Czar of Russia, the Austrian Prince Schwarzenburg, and the fierce old Prussian warrior General Blücher. And no less dangerous to his political survival are the devious: Richard Karelius, British gentleman-spy, and his Hungarian friend Farkas Aranyos.
A treacherous plot emerges against the Emperor’s life. Who is behind it? Surely it cannot be Karelius, bound as ever by the moral code of an English gentleman. Aranyos, perhaps? Or the mysterious blind girl whose saintliness occasionally appears to verge on fanaticism? Maybe a French traitor is responsible? As ever, Jacques Thiercelin, chief spy-catcher for the Grand Army, plays a major part in discovery of the truth, as he and Karelius cross swords for the final time.
This, the penultimate book in the Richard Karelius series, not only sees the end of the road for a well-loved character, but the emergence of another, in the shape of a seven-year-old girl. Karelius is still mourning the loss of the last woman in his life when the child brings him further sad news, besides the greatest shock, and joy, of his life. And who is the mysterious ‘pretty lady with black hair’ to whom she refers?