Category: Reading Challenges

#BookReview #Ad The Drums of War by Michael Ward

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The Drums of WarAbout the Book

London 1642. The King has fled London with the drums of war ringing in his ears. Across the country, lines are being drawn and armies raised.

Influential royalist Lady Carlisle switches sides and presses spice trader Thomas Tallant and his partner Elizabeth Seymour into Parliament’s service.

Soon Thomas faces double-dealing in his hunt for a lethal hoard of gunpowder hidden on the river, while Elizabeth engages in a race against time to locate a hidden sniper picking off Parliamentary officers at will in the city.

The capital also witnesses a vicious gang of jewel thieves take advantage of the city’s chaos to go on the rampage, smashing homes and shops, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. They hand pick their targets but refrain from selling any of their loot. There are more questions than answers.

When war finally erupts, Elizabeth is caught in the brutalising carnage of Edgehill while Thomas joins the Trained Bands in their defence of the city. As he mans the barricades at Brentford, in a desperate rearguard action to repel Prince Rupert’s surprise attack, he realises the future of London rests in the hands of him and a few hundred troopers.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth believes she has identified the jewel thief and goes underground to trace his hoard. But all is not as it seems.

Format: ebook (227 pages)                  Publisher: Sharpe Books
Publication date: 18th August 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find The Drums of War (Thomas Tallant #3) on Goodreads

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My Review

The Drums of War is the third book in the author’s Thomas Tallant series, the sequel to Rags of Time and The Wrecking Storm. Links from the titles will take you to my reviews. The Drums of War can definitely be read as a standalone although I would recommend reading the series from the beginning for maximum enjoyment.

Once again the author has created an exciting combination of mystery and adventure built around actual historical events and featuring real historical figures, including the prominent Parliamentarian John Pym, pioneering physician William Harvey and the calculating Lucy, Countess of Carlisle.

I was delighted to see the return of the pipe-smoking Elizabeth Seymour, and playing a key role in the story too. Elizabeth prides herself on her logic and her knowledge of science, medicine and mathematics. Indeed the latter enables a breakthrough in the hunt for a sniper who has been targeting officers of the Trained Bands, the militia in charge of the defence of the City of London from the forces of the King. But Elizabeth’s confidence in her abilities is challenged when she finds herself at the Battle at Edge Hill, overwhelmed by the scale of the carnage and her inability to help the injured and dying.  ‘My God, it was Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell – the cries and shouts of desperate men, punctuated by booming cannon and the crackle of musket fire, in a fog of choking, gunpowder smoke.’  She also witnesses, in one particularly moving scene, the truth of what Thomas warned civil war would bring at the close of the previous book: ‘Father against son. Husband against wife. Brother against brother.’ 

Meanwhile Thomas finds himself thrust into the centre of the action as well and relying on some quick-witted companions and some lucky breaks to escape unscathed from the heat of battle.  

Alongside recounting Thomas’s and Elizabeth’s adventures (which on this occasion take place largely separately), the author introduces a mysterious, unnamed narrator with a connection to one of the secondary plot lines. But just what this person’s motive is remains unclear, as does their connection with an old adversary of the Tallant family. The book ends with a teaser that I hope suggests there are more adventures to come for Thomas and Elizabeth.

I thoroughly enjoyed The Drums of War with its intricate plot, fascinating historical detail and engaging leading characters. 

My thanks to the author for my digital review copy. You can find out more about ‘the life and times of Thomas Tallant’ on the author’s website.  

In three words: Intriguing, entertaining, eventful 

Try something similar: The Drowned City by K. J. Maitland 

Mike Ward Author picAbout the Author

Mike Ward is an English creator of historical fiction. Born in Liverpool, he was a BBC journalist and journalism academic before turning to non-factual writing.

His debut novel The Rags of Time is located in London in 1639. It marks the start of a tumultuous 30 years – civil war, regicide, republic and royal restoration. Politics, religion, commerce, science, and medicine – none are left untouched by this ferment of change.

Mike believes it’s the perfect setting for his hero Thomas Tallant’s series of adventures, starting with Rags of Time and followed by The Wrecking Storm and The Drums of War.

Connect with Michael
Website | Twitter

#BookReview #Ad Old God’s Time by Sebastian Barry

whatcathyreadnext7 Comments

Old God's TimeAbout the Book

Recently retired policeman Tom Kettle is settling into the quiet of his new home, a lean-to annexed to a Victorian castle overlooking the Irish Sea. For months he has barely seen a soul, catching only glimpses of his eccentric landlord and a nervous young mother who has moved in next door. Occasionally, fond memories return, of his family, his beloved wife June and their two children, Winnie and Joe.

But when two former colleagues turn up at his door with questions about a decades-old case, one which Tom never quite came to terms with, he finds himself pulled into the darkest currents of his past.

Format: eARC (272 pages)                  Publisher: Faber & Faber
Publication date: 2nd March 2023 Genre: Literary Fiction

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Hive | Amazon UK
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My Review

Sebastian Barry is the author of a book that has stayed with me ever since I read it back in 2017, the wonderful Days Without End. (I wasn’t alone in loving it because it went on to win the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction that year.) He’s done it again with Old God’s Time which is just as wonderful and unforgettable.

Written in close third person, the author takes us inside the mind of retired policeman, Tom Kettle.  And what an unsettling and disordered place it is to be as past and present intermingle. Tom remembers some things like they were yesterday. On the other hand, events and conversations that appear to be occurring in the present day turn out to be the product of his imagination or echoes of things that happened long ago.  Some of these moments, especially those concerning his family are truly heartbreaking.

As Tom looks back on his marriage to June, we are witness to an intensely moving love story. Tom may get confused about other things but he can remember the day he met June with perfect clarity, even the dress she wore. And as the story unfolds, we learn that. as children. they both experienced horrific cruelty at the hands of Catholic priests. The details are harrowing and difficult to read but it feels necessary to do so to bear witness to the people who experienced this in real life and to understand the devastating and lasting impact it had on them. Also shocking is, if not actual complicity, then a failure to act by other institutions including the Garda, the police service of Ireland in which Tom himself served.

It’s such a failure that had dreadful consequences for Tom and June, setting off a chain of tragic events.  His resilience in the face of tragedy is humbling. ‘Things happened to people, and some people were required to lift great weights that crushed you if you faltered just for a moment. It was his job not to falter. But every day he faltered. Every day he was crushed, and rose again the following morn…’

There are mesmerising descriptions of the sea, the changing light and weather that Tom observes through the picture window of his flat as he sits in his favourite, ‘sun-faded’ wicker chair smoking a cigarillo. There are also touches of wry humour.

My first thought on finishing the book was, Oh Tom, I wish I could give you a hug; my second was, what a truly brilliant piece of writing. Old God’s Time is the kind of book that, on turning the last page, you want to read all over again. It’s also further proof that a novel doesn’t have to be big to deliver a powerful punch. Old God’s Time is definitely the best book I’ve read so far this year.

You can read an extract from Old God’s Time here. I can also recommend this Waterstones podcast in which Sebastian Barry talks about the book and his approach to writing.

I received a review copy courtesy of Faber & Faber via NetGalley.

In three words: Lyrical, tender, heartbreaking

Try something similar: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

SebastianBarryAbout the Author

Sebastian Barry was born in Dublin in 1955. The current Laureate for Irish Fiction, his novels have twice won the Costa Book of the Year award, the Independent Booksellers Award and the Walter Scott Prize. He had two consecutive novels shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize – A Long Long Way (2005) and the top ten bestseller The Secret Scripture (2008) – and has also won the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Prize, the Irish Book Awards Novel of the Year and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He lives in County Wicklow. (Photo: Publisher author page)