Book Review: 'The Scarlet Thief' by Paul Fraser Collard

The very first pages of The Scarlet Thief find the main character, Jack Lark, fighting for his life amidst the bloodshed of the Battle of Alma, the first engagement of the Crimean War, and the redcoats are not doing so well, flayed by musketry and artillery as they struggle across the River of Alma.

Suddenly, we’re heading back in time, and back to pre-war England, where Jack Lark is yet another who has joined the British Army – “taken the queen’s shilling” – to escape other hardships in life, and he joins a company that is ruled by a brutal and unjust non-commissioned officer, Colour Sergeant Slater. Lark finds a modicum of protection from Captain Sloames, who had earlier selected Lark to be his orderly.

Sloames had dreams of glorious battlefields, and when he gets word that the regiment is being shipped to the disease-ridden West Indies, he purchases a commission in a different unit, the Kings Royal Fusiliers, one more likely to be deployed to the Crimean Peninsula, where war between an Allied army of French, Turkish and British will face Russia’s mammoth conscript armies.

For whatever reason, Lark has attracted the enmity of Slater, who decides to help himself to Lark’s girl, Molly, who is a local worker where the regiment is billeted. Lark stumbles upon the sergeant trying to have his way with the girl. A fight breaks out, Molly is dead, Slater frames Lark for murder, and there is hell to pay.

It is timely, then, that Lark leaves the battalion with Sloames, the captain acting as a sort of personal guardian angel. They don’t get far before the captain is struck down with an unspecified illness that eventually robs him of his life. In a moment of sheer madness, Lark decides to help himself to the dead captain’s uniform and, for that matter, everything else about the deceased officer. In reality, Jack Lark died that night, and now he is Sloames, from the gutter to the ranks of officers and to the officer’s mess.

And so, to the front the charlatan Lark – masquerading as Sloames; an offense for which the authorities would hang a man for in the British Army of the time – goes, and through the early confusion of the invasion. It appears that, some forty years after Waterloo, the modern British army isn’t particularly well prepared, and their French allies move far inland whilst the redcoats wait for valuable supplies that haven’t arrived.

Inevitably, Colour Sergeant Slater makes a return, joining the Fusiliers in the Crimea after being ousted from his old regiment due to the incident with Molly. He is assigned to Lark’s company, and threatens to uncover the other man’s masquerade. Then, the Battle of Alma happens and the personal vendetta must be settled amongst the brutal fighting with the Russians.

For a debut, Paul Fraser Collard has written a tight, fast-paced and interesting ‘swords and muskets’ adventure that reminds me of one of Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe novels, which are some of my favourites. Obviously, you must suspend much disbelief to carry on, for the idea of Lark stealing another man’s identity, and successfully running a company seems rather far-fetched – you imagine officers would realise, sooner or later, Lark’s real pedigree, and they may still in coming novels – but the story skips along nicely, opening up many avenues for further adventures.

In the manner of Cornwell, Fraser Collard brings the battle to life with descriptions that’ll make you feel like you’re there, struggling with the redcoats against the well-positioned Russian forces. It’s bloody, brutal and very real. It’s the last few chapters that detail the bulk of the fighting where Fraser Collard really hits his straps, and there’s an open-ended conclusion after the British snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat, and some more Jack Lark adventures to come.

If you’re looking for something in the same vein as Richard Sharpe, then you can’t go wrong with Jack Lark! Can’t wait to read more!