# Please ID a book (Napoleonic fiction) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2009, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517 "2009-04-18T10:25:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517/1 "2009-04-18T10:25:49Z")
Dear Dopers, With great respect for your proven powers in this area, I turn to you for help. In late 2007 / early 2008, I remember flipping through a book in the bookstore. This I remember: it was set around the time of the Napoleonic wars and the protagonist was an officer in the British navy\*, the character was young – late teens? – and a lieutenant, and had been assigned to the customs / Inland Revenue service due to a history of poor performance. The book opens with him, while drunk, finding a dead body on the beach (in Dover?) while watching for smugglers. This I might remember: the book might have been targeted at younger readers, it may have been the author’s first novel, and it may have had a glossy hardcover (like some of the recent Hardy Boys books). I’ve done Google and Amazon searches with no luck. Any thoughts would be appreciated! \*This alone is enough of a hook to get me interested! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517/2 "2009-04-18T13:01:35Z")
Well, there’s no shortage of fiction about British naval officers from the Napoleonic era. I haven’t read one that opens like this, but it sounds a bit like it might be one of Adam Hardy’s\* “Fox” books. That’s just a guess. Here’s a page on them: [http://www.historicnavalfiction.com/index.php/authors-a-z/891-adam-hardy](http://www.historicnavalfiction.com/index.php/authors-a-z/891-adam-hardy) Was it a used book store, or was it a new book. The Fox books are a bit on the old side… \*a pen name for Kenneth Bulmer, I’m told. Not that this means anything to me. ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517/3 "2009-04-18T13:43:44Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Well, there’s no shortage of fiction about British naval officers from the Napoleonic era. I haven’t read one that opens like this, but it sounds a bit like it might be one of Adam Hardy’s\* “Fox” books. You make a good point, **Cal** ; it’s true, it’s a pretty big genre. Thanks for the suggestion. I took a look at the few Amazon reviews I could find – neither Wiki nor your link had plot summaries, bizarrely – and I don’t think it’s one of those. (It could be _Press Gang_, possibly, but it’s hard to tell without more info.) I was in Barnes and Noble at the time, so this was a new printing if not a new book. ---
**Author:** ![Chelonaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@Chelonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chelonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517/4 "2009-04-18T14:25:15Z")
Right away your outline reminded me of [The Devil to Pay](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Devil_to_Pay_%28novel%29), written by C. Northcote Parkinson, of the famous eponymous law. Fits with Napoleonic war, naval officer becomes captain of a cutter for the revenue service. However, other details don’t fit AFAIR. And you would probably remember that Parkinson was the writer (unless you never heard of him). I had forgotten the title, so wikied Parkinson to find it. So it’s probably not that one, still I recommend it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517/5 "2009-04-18T14:57:43Z")
It’s not **The Press Gang** or **Devil to Pay** – I’ve read both of those. I just checked my copy of The Press Gang to make sure. I’ll agree with **Chelonaut** ’s recommendation of Parkinson – his stuff is the closest thing in feel to Forester’s Horatio Hornblower I’ve read. I recommend C. Northcote Parkinson’s biography of Hornblower. Prkinson was clearly a big fan, and modeled his own hero after Hornblower. You might think that a bio of Hornblower isn’t necessary, but Parkinson’s book attempts to fill in the gaps. It also suggests a very different ending to Forester’s unfinished **Hornblower During the Crisis** , which differs from the summary printed in the published edition (which wasn’t written by Forester, obviously). It also contains Parkinson’s inferences of what _really_ happened during the events in **lieytenant Hornblower**. ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517/6 "2009-04-19T02:53:26Z")
Thank you, **Chelonaut** and **Cal** both. C. Northcote Parkinson is definitely on my list to read, particularly because of his bio of Hornblower-- which you make sound fascinating!, but he wasn’t the author in this case. The main draw for this book, as I remember, is that the protagonist is something of an anti-hero. He’s working for the Customs service because he’s disgraced himself previously, and the first chapter or two talks quite a bit about his drinking, and I think it spends time describing his hangover. I’ll try searching for “anti-hero”, actually… The book may have been heavily discounted, too – so it may not have been terribly popular. (And all the more reason I’m kicking myself for not buying it!) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517/7 "2009-04-19T03:28:06Z")
Sounds like [Dewey Lambdin’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dewey_Lambdin) Alan Lewrie, but I’ve not read them all. I had great hopes for a nautical Flashman, but it was not to be. ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517/8 "2009-04-19T12:07:48Z")
Thanks, **carnivorousplant** – the character sounds right on, but none of the stories look like they match up… ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517/9 "2009-04-19T17:29:57Z")
… Could it have been His Majesty’s Dragon? I know the protagonist starts out disgraced, and that _sounds_ like what I remember from the opening. ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517/10 "2009-04-19T20:48:41Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > … Could it have been His Majesty’s Dragon? I know the protagonist starts out disgraced, and that _sounds_ like what I remember from the opening. No, “His Majesty’s Dragon” starts on board a ship. I’m also certain there’s no scene anywhere in the book where the protagonist finds a dead body on a beach. ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2009, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517/11 "2009-04-19T22:11:28Z")
**LurkMeister** is right, **E-Sabbath** , but thank you both. However, I’m pleased to report success! Thanks to **CalMeacham** ’s link, and the search term “Dover” (not “antihero”, “customs”, or “revenue”), I found the book: [QUOTE=Astrodene’s Historic Naval Fiction] The Blighted Cliffs Written by Edwin Thomas Series: The Reluctant Adventures of Martin Jerrold 1806: Not many men emerged from Trafalgar with not an ounce of credit to their names, but through an over reliance on rum and his habitual bad luck, Lieutenant Martin Jerrold managed it. In February 1806, he comes to the White Cliffs of Dover with one final chance to redeem his reputation. Before he has been there a day, however, he finds himself standing over a corpse at the foot of the cliffs. Jerrold is suspected of murder. Only the fact that no one can identify the corpse prolongs his freedom. Distrusted by his superiors, set upon by intriguingly well-informed smugglers, and attacked by the French at sea, Jerrold has two weeks to save his skin - or perish in the attempt [/quote] Source: [http://www.historicnavalfiction.com/index.php/book-title-index/t/757-the-blighted-cliffs](http://www.historicnavalfiction.com/index.php/book-title-index/t/757-the-blighted-cliffs) I’m now off to see what I can get from Amazon. Thank you, everyone! ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517/12 "2009-04-20T00:07:27Z")
Ah, well. I was thinking laterally. ---
**Author:** ![StephenG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7feea3/32.png) [@StephenG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StephenG)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-id-a-book-napoleonic-fiction/493517/13 "2009-04-20T01:03:21Z")
> [@E-Sabbath](#): > > Ah, well. I was thinking laterally. Absolutely; it was worth a shot. I’ve been meaning to read the _Temeraire_ books, too.