My Week in Books – 28th January 2024

MyWeekinBooksOn What Cathy Read Next last week

Monday – I published my review of History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund.

Tuesday – This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic was Books I Meant to Read in 2023.

Wednesday – As always WWW Wednesday is a weekly opportunity to share what I’ve just read, what I’m currently reading and what I plan to read next… and to take a peek at what others are reading. 

Thursday – I published my review of To Kill a King by David Gilman.


New arrivals

book cover of The Mountain in my Shoe by Louise BeechThe Mountain in my Shoe by Louise Beech (Orenda)

A missing boy. A missing book. A missing husband. A woman who must find them all to find herself.

On the night Bernadette finally has the courage to tell her domineering husband that she’s leaving, he doesn’t come home. Neither does Conor, the little boy she’s befriended for the past five years. Also missing is his lifebook, the only thing that holds the answers. With the help of Conor’s foster mum, Bernadette must face her own past, her husband’s secrets and a future she never dared imagine in order to find them all. 

Little Fires EverywhereLittle Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng (Penguin)

In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned — from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules.

Enter Mia Warren — an enigmatic artist and single mother — who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

When old family friends of the Richardsons attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town — and puts Mia and Elena on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Elena is determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs.


On What Cathy Read Next this week

Currently reading


Planned posts

  • Book Review: Perfume River by Robert Olen Butler
  • Book Review: The Slowworm’s Song by Andrew Miller
  • Book Review: Other Worlds Were Possible by Joss Sheldon
  • Book Review: His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet

Book Review – To Kill a King by David Gilman @AriesFiction @HoZ_Books

About the Book

Book cover To Kill a King by David Bilman

1367. Having angered the bloodthirsty Don Pedro, King of Castile, Sir Thomas Blackstone is thoroughly sick of his mission for the Prince of Wales, but must remain true to his oath. But this is the Hundred Years’ War, and tensions are rising once more. With the Prince of Wales deeply unpopular in his Aquitainian lands, Blackstone, King Edward’s Master of War, must return to French soil to help stem the tide of support for the King of France.

Meanwhile, Henry, Blackstone’s son, faces an incognito ride across France with his own motley band of outlaws and mercenaries. But the French are aware of the younger Blackstone’s journey, and see a perfect way to target the Master of War…

Format: ebook (458 pages) Publisher: Head of Zeus
Publication date: 1st February 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction

Find To Kill a King on Goodreads

Purchase To Kill a King from Bookshop.org (Disclosure: If you buy a book via this link, I may earn a small commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookshops)


My Review

To Kill a King is the eighth book in David Gilman’s ‘Master of War’ series. As is often the case, I haven’t read all the books in the series. I started with good intentions, reading the first book, The Blooding, back in 2016. It charts Thomas Blackstone’s rise from humble stonemason’s apprentice to skilled archer fighting the French at the battle of Crécy. The second book in the series, Defiant Unto Death, has been lingering on my Kindle for more years than I care to mention. Between then and now there’s been a lot of blood spilt and Blackstone has fought many battles, lost many comrades, suffered personal tragedy and defied death on numerous occasions.

It’s probably easiest if you’ve read previous books in the series but, if you haven’t – or have missed great chunks of the series like me – To Kill a King can be read as a standalone. I would suggest reading the Author’s Note to get a sense of the historical situation at the point the book opens. The list of characters at the beginning of the book will also introduce you to Blackstone’s most loyal and trusted comrades. They’ve travelled many miles together and fought many battles. ‘And where is home? For any of us? It is where we are with whom we ride. That is home…’

Blackstone’s son, Henry, has a lot to live up to, something he is intent on doing rather than continuing his studies in Oxford under the safety of an assumed name. Henry is the chink in his father’s armour (if you’ll pardon the pun), a reminder of the woman Blackstone loved and lost under tragic circumstances. There’s never been another to replace her, although some have come tantalisingly close.

You want battle scenes? You’ll get them in spades in To Kill a King: skirmish after skirmish, ambush after ambush, deadly hails of arrows and crossbow bolts, bloody close-quarter killing. ‘War hammers crushed bones… Men shrieked: pleas for clemency unheard above the cacophony of screams, whinnying horses, trumpets and drums.’ On plenty of occasions Blackstone has to rely on his ill-natured ‘bastard horse’, his trusty Wolf Sword or his sixth sense for danger to dodge death. And, if you want some really nasty villains, there are those too. In fact, if you’re a bit squeamish, you might want to skip over a few scenes.

The end of the book involves some brilliant scenes in which Blackstone proves what an unstoppable force he is, but also what he is prepared to do in order to protect his son. Will Blackstone live to fight another day? You’ll have to read the book to find out.

If you love historical fiction where the action comes thick and fast, then you’ll enjoy To Kill a King.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Head of Zeus via NetGalley.

In three words: Action-packed, authentic, compelling
Try something similar: Essex Dogs by Dan Jones


About the Author

Author David Gilman

David Gilman has enjoyed many careers, including paratrooper, firefighter, and photographer. An award-winning author and screenwriter, he is the author of the critically acclaimed Master of War series of historical novels, and was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize for The Last Horseman. He was longlisted for the same prize for The Englishman, the first book featuring ex-French Foreign Legionnaire Dan Raglan. David lives in Devon.

Connect with David
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