The Cardinal's Blades by Pierre Pevel

A fantasy novel translated from French, which doesn't happen that often; it's set in Paris in 1633, the Cardinal in question naturally being Richelieu and the Blades his finest and most elite soldier-spies, who had been disbanded 5 years earlier for political reasons. A good portion of the book is the 'we're putting the band back together' section, where the Blades are located and plucked from their dayjobs, which is light and enjoyable.

Although it's a fantasy novel, for almost the entire book except the climax it's easy to forget that and assume you're reading a historical swashbuckling adventure. As you might expect from the setting, it's full of spies and double-agents, intrigue and political scheming, sword-fights and heroic rescues. And, thankfully, humour. The fantasy element arises from who some of the spies and double-agents are working for, and what additional power that might give them, though I don't think that aspect was fully explored.

I enjoyed it, but I also enjoyed all the Scarlet Pimpernel novels, the Three Musketeers and the Man in the Iron Mask. If you don't think they'd be your sort of thing, I wouldn't recommend this book, but if you like high boots, doublets, rapiers and repartee, and you don't mind the occasional dragon, I'd say you were in for a cracking read.