A very English agent Book

At the funeral of the Duke of Wellington, a strange man causes a stir by demanding compensation for work done over a number of years on behalf of the government, work which might not be strictly legal. The establishment gets more and more interested and uneasy as this man tells his story, spanning from Waterloo all the way to the 1851 Great Exhibition, implicating himself and his alleged employers in all manner of crimes and scandals.

I really should have loved this book, and really wanted to. After all, what's not to love? A flawed and unreliable protagonist, Wellington, agents provocateurs and Swing Rioters, Queen Victoria and even the death of Shelley all make an appearance. The writing is humorous and very evocative of the period, with some lovely touches to really send you back to the first half of the 19th century.

But I just found myself wanting more, and not in a good way: I know the point of these things is to keep you guessing, but too much was left unanswered to leave me feeling even part-way satisfied by the end (don't worry: no spoilers). The voices of the characters were all well written, but my main issue was with the protagonist Charlie Boylan / Bosham - when he's writing down his thoughts for others, I totally agree that we can be misled, but not when the story is coming at us direct from his own perspective? In the end this, plus the endlessly shifting points of view, left me fatigued and not really caring what would happen to anyone - which is a shame, because there's so much here to love.