ROGER BROOK

       Roger Brook is an agent for the British Prime Minister.
       When first we encounter him, the year is 1783 and young Roger Brook is a 15-year-old student nearing the end of his academic career and facing the probability of being pressed into military service. He is very much against the idea, not because he is afraid or unwilling to do his duty to his country but, as he puts it, he is loath to have to unquestioningly obey those for whom he has little respect and whom he considers many to be dumber than he. In the first pages of the first recorded adventure he is being tormented by the school bully and though he has lost twice in fights with the older, taller, stronger student, Brook is unwilling to step back. He is not foolhardy or stupid - just quite determined.
       That determination/stubbornness will play a major role in his life which will be depicted in 12 lengthy volumes, many of which actually span several years and numerous unrelated adventures. Brook will escape the fate his father, a British Naval Admiral, had decided for him and fled to pre-Revolutionary France where he will find the first of many, many adventures and fall deeply into love on numerous occasions.
       Along the way he will become a most secret and effective agent for the British Prime Minister, William Pitt, and will be sent on numerous occasions into danger to find vital state secrets or to undermine one side in a conflict or bolster another side. He will work diligently to help preserve many of the nobles of France, winning some battles but losing many. He will be instructed to join up with an upstart French military officer named Napoleon Bonaparte and become a major player in that person's actions to better report back to Pitt.
       And he will continue to let his emotions, be it love or lust, dictate many of his actions. Some will cause him great discomfort. Some will bring him increasing success and wealth. All will continue to feed the imagination of the young man in school who really did not like being told what to do.

       I was a big fan of Dennis Wheatley's Duke de Richleau tales and of several of the Gregroy Sallust adventures. I even enjoyed in the early 70s a few of Wheatley's Black Magic tales. So you can see that I have read a good number of the man's writings and have come away usually very favorably.
       That is not the case with the Roger Brook stories, though. I always got the feeling he was a spoiled brat who took what he wanted when he wanted it and if it did not come freely, he pouted. That is just me, of course. And honestly, I did not make it through all of his books. I tried most of them but some of the last half dozen were left with bookmarks halfway in.
       At the time (early 80s for me), I thought that since these latter books were largely written towards the end of his writing life while he was in the 70s, he was a bit too preoccupied with lust and sexual conquest. Now as I write this and I start to approach the age he was, I stand on my earlier thoughts but with perhaps not so much judgment.

My Grade: B-

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