I will definitely buy and read this book when it is available. But...

The title is unfortunately in the same style as the National Enquirer/Daily Mail schlock penne by Bill O'Reilly--Killing Lincoln, Killing Jesus, and so forth--which brings forth a lot of images that will make many US readers cringe, given O'Reilly's reputation.

The other problem is that Bonaparte was not Napoleon on December 24, 1800. I get that readers instinctively "know" Napoleon much more than they would know Bonaparte. Still, it's a historical detail that is bothersome.

The blurb is more purple than accurate. I don't know a thing about this publisher, but if Amberley's PR folks wrote the blurb, they should be given a first warning. First Consul Bonaparte was not the "most powerful and powerful man in the world in December 1800 by anyone's standards, not even his own, I dare say. And the rather ham-fisted attempt to make the Infernal Machine relevant to 20th-century terrorism is not only unnecessary--people then certainly did not think in terms of terrorism and collateral damage--but also another example of the woeful tendency to apply a layer of 21st-century sensibilities and viewpoints over the actual sensibilities and views of the period in question. Lamentable, and unnecessary.

I'm a critic. I simply can't help it. However, in this case, I think the author is too solid a writer and researcher to be potentially diminished in the slightest by some of these external issues.

On the other hand, it might well just be me...