Whoever decribed these books as being "the next Flashman" did the author a great dis-service. Jerrold has very little of Flashman's sheer shameless cowardice. In reality he's just very unlucky. Jerrold passes up the chance to cheat on his mistress twice & refuses to shoot someone in the back- two things Flashy would never pass up! The books lack the depth, research & sheer class of the Flashman series- if you think you're going to get something to equal George MacDonald Fraser you'll be disapointed. This should not be held against the author as the Martin Jerrold adventures are actually very good books and deserve to be far better known. The depth of historical research is as good as Sharpe, the decriptions of Regency England are very atmospheric, but perhaps lack the real sense of oppresive danger that pervaded the "rookeries" of London. The "hero" is a great character... being neither as shameless as Flashman, nor as superhuman as Sharpe makes him very likeable indeed.

"The Chains of Albion" starts slowly, but builds to a truly exciting conclusion. Without spoling the plot, the prisoners "secret" is quite amazing... the fact that one of his "papers" still survives in the Royal archive at Windsor suggests that some of the plot is actually true and the implications of THAT are quite startling!