I found some irony in reading about the execution of Charles I in the days, preceding the coronation of Charles III! Opinions on the monarchy are as divided now as they were when this book is set, but one fervently hopes that the outcomes are divergent.
Specifically the novel focuses on the obsession of Richard Nayler who is hunting down Colonel Edward Whalley, and his son-in-law, William Goffe. Both are wanted for the murder of Charles Stuart. Nayler is the only fictitious character according to the author’s note at the beginning of the book. And it’s a good fact to furnish the reader with, because it would be very easy to get carried away, believing this story to be as it actually happened. The writing is so convincing. But it is historical fiction, so fiction is the operative word.
It’s a good old yarn, from a master storyteller, with some extensive research and a wealth of imagination. It’s ambitious in that Harris attempts to look at events from every angle which provides the reader with a dilemma. For you remain torn between rooting for Nayler to achieve his quest and Whalley and Goffe to evade capture. Both possess a fanaticism that seems to drive their every action. And I think action is probably the operative word here. There’s much of it - crossing continents in storm-struck seas, surviving in the wild, all very convincing , not to mention some palpable descriptions of London during the plague, and the Great Fire. It’s all very gripping for sure. The main characters do a lot of soul-searching, questioning the morality of their thoughts and their actions, reflecting on a past that they cannot change, trying to survive for a future they cannot see.
This book has been shortlisted for the Walter Scott Historical Fiction prize 2023, and I am grateful to that organisation for my gifted copy.
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