FLASH FOR FREEDOM!

A portion of Flashman's followers, who have tracked the peregrinations of that Victorian rotter through European-based adventures in survival, may find this excursion on the American slavery scene a bit too strong. If there's anything that bothers Flashman about slavery it's the smell and occasional gore, to which he's introduced after being shanghaied aboard a slave ship captained by a piratical whip-wielding former don given to Latin homilies. After a trip to Africa to pick up cargo, Flashman lands in America, shifts identity, gets involved with starchy Abolitionists, finally escapes with a female slave (there's a chase across the ice before he has a chance to desert her) and is almost netted by a government inquiry. Abraham Lincoln (who recognizes another ""humbug ""when he sees one), appears twice as Flashman's savior, scum on the groundswell of history. Another bawdy progress with much jolly ""rogering"" (the sex euphemisms have a period charm) and very black humor handle with care.