Terrific stuff from Fraser. Sometimes this gets overlooked in my memory with Flashman's 3-5 but this one is brilliant too. You sense Flashman is in true peril going up Borneo and then in Madagascar. Giving Elspeth a larger role is a fresh take, including diary entries and comments from her sister. There's also a lovely opening section about cricket, meeting Tom Brown and playing at Lords, with a superb double wicket match. The scene visiting the execution did feel a little random (the time spent on it in the book) and the bookie's voice was perhaps given too much page space. Those a minor gripes in a Flashman classic.
This really is the best formula for the books: opening sequence in England, with a sports type sequence, then adventures in one exotic part of the world, then adventures in another exotic part of the world, constantly pair Flashman with famous nutters. A treat.
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