Captain Frederick Tilney, a rake and heir to Northanger Abbey has no wish to change. But when he meets Violet Blakeney, daughter of the Scarlet Pimpernel, and when his close friend Colonel Sir John Buford, tells him to take responsibility for his poor reputation, he wonders can he change.
When the Blakeney family is put in danger by a scheming French government official can Tilney redeem himself.
A very enjoyable romp, a mixture of action and romance with some interesting chracters. ( )

I will confess to being utterly blindsided by this book - 'an American guy writing about Jane Austen's characters - and Baroness Orczy's Scarlet Pimpernel? Two of my favourite authors?' Apprehensive wasn't the word. But this is one of the best spin-off novels I have read in ages, and Jack Caldwell could be Orczy's honorary son. I now want to go back and re-read ALL the Pimpernel novels, and after all this time!

Following on from The Three Colonels: Jane Austen's Fighting Men, which I haven't read, Caldwell draws together characters from Austen's Northanger Abbey and Mansfield Park, two of my least favourite novels, with cameos from the Darcys and Colonel Brandon. But the main reason why I wanted to give this sequel a try - Sir Percy Blakeney and his wonderful wife Marguerite from Orczy's The Scarlet Pimpernel! And oh wow, does Caldwell do them and their star-cross'd romance justice - even twenty years after the heroics of the last Pimpernel novel, with two grown up children, Sir Percy and his lady are still made for each other. I'm far from the romantic type, but they set my heart a flutter all over again. 'A tender look filled Sir Percy’s eyes behind his spectacles — a look reserved only for her,' Caldwell writes; 'Only behind closed doors could Marguerite enjoy the unconcealed nature of the man she adored'. SWOON. And he has really done his research too - about the only misplaced detail I could spot was Marguerite's 'ardent' red-gold hair from Orczy's books has now become a dark brunette, presumably to fit in with her Gallic background. But all the actresses playing Marguerite on screen, save Margaret Leighton, have been dark-haired, so she obviously works well with either colouring!

Anyway, plot, yes - and there is one! Twenty years after the Pimpernel's last adventure, with his arch nememis Chauvelin having fallen victim to the guillotine and Boney in exile on Elba, Sir Percy's greatest concerns are the men courting his seventeen year old daughter Violet - including Captain Frederick Tilney, who has a bit of an eye for the ladies. That is, of course, until events across the Channel draw the Pimpernel into one last adventure (“You are wrong, my dear, foolish love. The League still lives, Percy Blakeney, because England still lives. Because you still live"). Caldwell has perfectly captured the spirit of the books - emotional blackmail, revenge, dramatic twists just when all looks lost. I won't say anymore, except that I obviously should have revisited the original series first because I didn't see that coming!

Recommended for all, but required reading for any fans of the Scarlet Pimpernel! ( )

Jack Caldwell's Austen-verse novels have been a pleasure to read over the last couple of years. Pemberley Ranch is a treat for any lover of Pride and Prejudice, but it's Caldwell's The Three Colonels that really stands out as a credit to not only his impressive grasp of history but his clear and apparent love for Austen's characters; and I'm happy to report that his latest novel, The Last Adventure of the Scarlet Pimpernel, continues in that vein and does not disappoint in the least.

Looking at the title, you probably aren't expecting this book to live in the same world as The Three Colonels, but that's precisely where it belongs. If you're trying to figure out what Baroness Orczy's preening Pimpernel has to do with Austen's characters, let me remind you that, in The Three Colonels, Caldwell tweaked Jane Austen's timelines just enough to throw the characters into wartime - to just about 25 years after the Reign of Terror ended in France.

Thus we find some (mostly) minor characters from Austen's Northanger Abbey, Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park thrown together with Percy, Marguerite and their children. The timeline is a clever trick on Caldwell's part, giving our author a twofold advantage - for one, by focusing on Austen's minor characters he's allowed more freedom in their actions and, secondly, by setting his novel into a generation after the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel's activities he can still use Orczy's main characters and not upset their thru-line.

What results is a delightful and effective mash-up of the two styles; a drawing room romance and a heroic mannered melodrama. And, as in the other two Caldwell titles I've mentioned, he yet again shines a light in places Austen left practically unattended. In both Pemberley Ranch and The Three Colonels, Caroline Bingley became a character one could actually talk about; in the latter, Wickham became more developed and Lady Catherine turned out to be human. In this most recent novel, the focus (and, strange as it is to say, hero) is Frederick Tilney - Henry Tilney's profligate brother in Northanger Abbey, whom many consider to be a kind of pre-caricature of Mansfield Park's licentious Henry Crawford.

In Caldwell's hands, Frederick - who becomes perhaps a more rehabilitated character than even Caldwell's version of Caroline Bingley - happens to be friends with both Colonel Buford (of The Three Colonels) and George Blakeney - son and heir of one, Percy Blakeney, tying all the relevant threads together and making for a beautifully elaborate, satisfying read. The characters walk from one source to the other, mixing with Caldwell's original characters so effortlessly that one can easily believe that they were all birthed from the same mind.

The presence of the Blakeneys, their relationship with the Prince Regent, and the dichotomy of Percy's character heighten the social profile of the ensemble overall; the ton becomes almost a separate character - a barometer by which both Orczy's and Austen's characters at times measure their clout or worthiness. It's an effect that is present in the Pimpernel stories, but seeing it affect Austen's characters the way it does is rather new. Sure, we get a glimpse of it in Sense and Sensibility when Marianne shouts Willoughby's name across a crowded room, but this is on a grander scale.

On top of which, the reader is juggling not only London but Paris as well - it wouldn't truly be a adventure for the Pimpernel if France were not involved, no? And what awaits these characters in France is a story all its own, with twists and turns worthy of both the ladies who inspired it.

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