Book Review: The Diamond Frontier (Simon Fonthill #03) by John Wilcox

Whilst not at the same level as Bernard Cornwell and his Sharpe adventures – who is? – the continuing adventures of the very-busy Simon Fonthill, a sort of Richard Sharpe for the late 1800s (Queen Victoria’s ‘little wars’, as they were so aptly named) are good fun if you’re into historical military fiction like I am.

Fonthill’s adventures started in the Zulu Wars, taking in the defeat at Isandlwana and the victory at Rorke’s Drift, then moved to Afghanistan, and the British triumph at Kandahar, and, in The Diamond Frontier, Fonthill and his constant companion, the dry, canny 352 Jenkins – his first name is Cyril, but he doesn’t like it, and is known by his service number due to the many soldiers named Jenkins in his parent battalion – find themselves en route to England and a few weeks’ rest with Fonthill’s parents when a note from an old friend in trouble diverts them to South Africa, where the diamond trade has exploded with popularity.

Sir Garnet Wolseley and a British army made up of redcoat regulars and plenty of local troops, is poised to attack the bePedi tribe, who, in a similar vein to the Zulu, have been causing trouble, raiding homes along the frontier. The bePedi have already defeated a Boer contingent set to stop them. The British don’t exactly have the best relationship with the Boer, and, of course, there will be open conflict between the two in a few years’.

Whilst Fonthill and 352 Jenkins are on the hunt for the daughter of the British spy chief, John Dunn (who made an appearance in the first Fonthill adventure), who, they discover, has been captured by men mixed up in the transport and sale of diamonds on the black market. There’s plenty of action and a few near misses and close shaves for our heroes. The banter between officer and NCO is fantastic. Wilcox has written both characters really, really well.

Making things more complicated is the presence in South Africa of Alice Griffith, the woman Simon loves, and a feisty war correspondent unafraid of upsetting the military chain of command. Lurking around, too, is the man Alice will marry, Fonthill’s greatest adversary, the very proper Colonel Ralph Covington. Every hero needs an enemy, right?

Just like Sharpe, who gets into his fair share of auxiliary adventures, Fonthill and 352 make it back to the army in time to join Wolseley’s push into bePedi territory. Whilst not quite as skilled as Cornwell, Wilcox is still above average when it comes to writing a good battle scene. Generally, the plotting, characterisation and action get better with every book.

I’m looking forward to the next instalment in a series that now stretches from the Zulu Wars (The Horns of the Buffalo) to the outbreak of the First World War (Dust Clouds of War), twelve full-length novels and one short story.