THE WINTER SOLDIERS

In the footsteps of Harry Flashman and Richard Sharpe, Sgt. "Fancy Jack" Crossman has been entertaining British readers for some years. His debut for American history buffs comes via his participation in the Crimean War of 1854. British, French, Turkish and Sardinian troops are fighting Russians, in bitterly cold conditions, the soldiers all hungry, ill and in rags, often under bombardment and directed by generals profligate with the lives of their soldiers. Descriptions of their misery as they are billeted near Balaklava prepare the reader for the climactic charge of the Light Brigade, the novel's climax. Leading up to that event, Fancy Jack, together with his ragtag platoon of soldiers, including Ali, a Turk, and Peterson, a sharpshooter who is actually a woman, are assigned "fox hunts" at night into enemy territory on spying and sabotage forays. In a nail-biting sequence with comedic overtones, Crossman supervises the destruction of a giant Russian crane. He's led to his target by a young, boastful Greek writer called Diodotus. They encounter a Russian lieutenant who advises Diodotus to stick to poetry, not prose. The boy laughs, tells them the officer, Leo Tolstoy, is also a writer, but his work is not good. Another "fox hunt" is the pursuit of a band of marauding British deserters. The combat is offset by strong personal elements. Jack's "natural" father, whom he hates, is a snobbish major who despises him for refusing to be an officer. A one-time sweetheart, Lavinia, now married to an officer, visits, along with "traveling gentlemen," sightseers observing the death and destruction of war. Florence Nightingale is briefly mentioned, and a profusion of other background material contributes to this fast-paced military adventure. (Feb.)

FYI:Booksellers can recommend this novel to readers of Beryl Bainbridge's excellent Master Georgie, set in the same time and place, but Bainbridge's is a more literary work, while Kilworth tailors his succinct prose to military action.