Flashman and the Tiger
George MacDonald Fraser
319 pages, including footnotes
published in 1999

Unlike the other Flashman books, this is not a full length novel, but rather a collection of a shorter then usual novel, The Road to Charing Cross and two novellas, The Subtleties of Baccarat and the title story, Flashman and the Tiger.

The latter story is one Fraser has hinted about before and it depicts the story of the almost meeting between Flashman and a somewhat famous late 19th century London detective, at a time when Flashman himself was already over seventy and long since retired from his active militairy career. It's the story of Tiger Jack Moran, how they fought together in Isan'lwana and at Rorke's Drift, how they met again in London and how Flashman ended up having to kill them, to save his daughter. It's an amazingly dense story, managing to fit in perhaps the two most famous British battles of the late nineteenth century, an encounter with Oscar Wilde, the aformentioned detective, who Flashie immediately dislikes, as well as a story of blackmail and (attempted) murder.

The other two stories are also set late in Flashman's career. The second story tells of Flashie's involvement with the Baccarat Scandal of 1890-1891, in which the then Prince of Wales was involved. Unlike most of his adventures, Flashman wasn't actively involved in this scandal, observing only how others managed to get into trouble, which must have been a change for him. Of the three stories, this is the least, it's main interest being that of the allegedly famous scandal rather then the story itself. In fact, both this story as well as the title story lack the spirit of the Flashman novels, which is however made up for by The Road to Charing Cross, the biggest story in the book, at 185 pages almost as long as a normal Flashman novel.

The Road to Charing Cross harkens back to Flashman's second adventure, as depcited in Royal Flash, when Flashie crossed swords with Otto von Bismarck, who is also present, though in the background, in this story. It all revolves around a plot to kill the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph, which if succesful would plunge all of Europe into war and as usual Flashman is the only one who can prevent this plot from succeeding.... He may not want to, but he is left no choice. Fortunately for him, the fringe benefits are quite wonderful and he manages to get into bed with a few very enthusiastic ladies... On the whole then, this volume was as enjoyable as any of the other Flashman books I've read.