This novel is set in 1809 and features an officer, broken and delirious, returned from war in Spain and deposited at his family's home in Somerset. He was part of a defeated army and had the misfortune of being nominally in charge of a band of stragglers whose atrocities at a small town drew the attention of allied command. When Lacroix recovers, he sets out for the islands off Scotland's west coast rather than go back to the Peninsular. Unbeknownst to him, a two man sanctioned, but unofficial, revenge team is on his trail. The author brilliantly paints amazing pictures of the time including the war, travel around pre-industrial Britain, a hospital in Glasgow and a commune in the Hebrides. But, to my mind, and almost acknowledged by the NYT reviewer, it is too many loose threads instead of a compelling story.
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