Tag: Reading Challenges

#BookReview The Sunken Road by Ciarán McMenamin @VintageBooks

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The Sunken Road PBAbout the Book

Annie, Francie and Archie were inseparable growing up, but in 1914 the boys are seduced by the drama of the Great War. Before leaving their small Irish village for the trenches, Francie promises his true love Annie that he will bring her little brother home safe.

Six years later Francie is on the run, a wanted man in the Irish war of Independence. He needs Annie’s help to escape safely across the border, but that means confronting the truth about why Archie never came back….

Format: Paperback (272 pages )          Publisher: Vintage
Publication date: 17th February 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

The story unfolds in alternating chapters moving between the trenches of France in 1915/16 and Ireland in 1922 during the Irish War of Independence. I’ll admit the latter is not something I knew much about prior to reading this book. What I learned can perhaps be summed up by one character’s observation, ‘The North, the South, the British, the Specials, the Free State Army, the IRA. It’s a right fuckin’ mess up here’.

The author has an actor’s ear for dialogue and the rhythm of Irish speech. The book’s vivid, punchy language accentuates the black humour of Frankie and his comrades. Apart from drink, it’s their only shield against the memories of the terrible scenes they have witnessed and the senseless loss of life. The madness of war is exemplified by a trench raid which is hailed a success despite it yielding no results apart from the death of a highly regarded officer, awarded a posthumous DSO. ‘For conspicuous gallantry, in action… There is nothing conspicuous about him now. Apart from his fucking absence.’

The Sunken Road is not a book for the faint-hearted as it includes harrowing scenes depicting the realities of trench warfare in France and Belgium during the First World War. ‘There is a uniformity to men’s voices when they choke on their own blood while begging for their mother’s tit. A million shells from thousands of guns for hundred of hours.’ It is during his time serving with the British army that Frankie first encounters the man who will become his nemesis – a man who is a bully, a coward and a hypocrite.

It is only in the final chapters of the book that Annie – and the reader – discover the tragic circumstances surrounding Archie’s failure to return from the war. The author resists the temptation to end the book on an uplifting note (echoes of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) although you could say that a kind of justice is served.

I thought the writing was superb and the characters of Frankie, Archie and Annie beautifully realized. There’s Archie, the gentle dreamer who believes it is his ‘destiny’ to liberate Europe, Frankie, the loyal friend tormented by guilt, and Annie, the feisty young woman torn between love and an unwillingness to forgive.  Although not an easy read, I found the book incredibly moving, immersive and utterly gripping.

The Sunken Road is the fifth book I’ve read from the thirteen books on the longlist for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2022 and it’s definitely up there with my favourite book so far, The Fortune Men.

In three words: Powerful, dark, gripping

Try something similar: Where God Does Not Walk by Luke McCallin

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Ciaran McMenaminAbout the Author

Ciaran McMenamin was born in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, in 1975. A graduate of the RSAMD, he has worked extensively for the past twenty years as an actor in film, television and theatre. His acclaimed first novel, Skintown, was a WHSmith Fresh Talent pick.

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#BookReview Traitor in the Ice by K. J. Maitland @HeadlineFiction

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Traitor in the IceAbout the Book

Winter, 1607. A man is struck down in the grounds of Battle Abbey, Sussex. Before dawn breaks, he is dead.

Home to the Montagues, Battle has caught the paranoid eye of King James. The Catholic household is rumoured to shelter those loyal to the Pope, disguising them as servants within the abbey walls. And the last man sent to expose them was silenced before his report could reach London.

Daniel Pursglove is summoned to infiltrate Battle and find proof of treachery. He soon discovers that nearly everyone at the abbey has something to hide – for deeds far more dangerous than religious dissent. But one lone figure he senses only in the shadows, carefully concealed from the world. Could the notorious traitor Spero Pettingar finally be close at hand?

As more bodies are unearthed, Daniel determines to catch the culprit. But how do you unmask a killer when nobody is who they seem?

Format: Hardback (432 pages)        Publisher: Headline
Publication date: 31st March 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

Traitor in the Ice is the second book in the author’s historical crime series featuring intelligencer Daniel Pursglove, the follow-up to The Drowned City.

In Traitor in the Ice we learn a little more about Daniel but much of his past still remains a mystery. In fact, some of it is a mystery even to himself. ‘I didn’t even know the year of my birth, much less the name my father had given me, if indeed any man had ever owned to being my father.’ What we do know is that he’s quick-thinking, handy with a lockpick but often, for reasons connected with his past, has to restrain his own violent instincts. ‘Killing a man was easy; forcing himself to lower the dagger was not’. In addition, his previous actions have given others a hold over him meaning he has little choice but to accept dangerous tasks such as his current mission.  And there is one particular person whose hatred for Daniel is very personal in nature. ‘He [Daniel] always comes back. A cockroach, a rat and a stinking malignant will always return, until you cut them into pieces and destroy them’. I must say I do like the way the author is drip-feeding us nuggets of information about Daniel’s past.

The discovery of the Gunpowder Plot and the ruthless despatch of the conspirators has only increased the sense of paranoia around the Jacobean court and in the country. Sent to try to uncover the fate of a previous intelligencer, by a combination of luck and quick-thinking Daniel successfully inveigles his way into the household of Battle Abbey. Once there he undertakes a lot of surreptitious exploration of the Abbey, which is conveniently situated close to the coast. He is surprised to find evidence of Catholic worship taking place in plain sight, making him convinced Viscountess Montague must have a protector in high places.

Talking of people in high places, surely no historical novel set in the period is complete without an appearance by one of the Cecil family; in this case it’s Robert Cecil. I actually felt some sympathy for him having to deal with the increasingly bizarre behaviour of the petulant King James I whose current obsession is the mass planting of mulberry trees. And although not central to the plot, I enjoyed the occasional glimpses into life in the Jacobean court. There is one fantastic scene depicting a particularly lavish banquet at which servers bear trays of ‘confections and cakes, roasted birds and small beasts re-dressed in their own feathers and fur, or artfully stitched together by the cooks to create piglets with cocks’ wings and heads, or salmon with rabbit legs and scut tails’. (By the way, if the word ‘sewer’ conjures up thoughts of needlework or even drains, you may be interested to read the author’s article in the April 2022 edition of Historia magazine in which she describes what it must have been like to dine at Battle Abbey in Tudor times.)  However, underneath all the outward display of excess and pleasure-seeking, there flow dark undercurrents of intrigue and political powerplay.

Traitor in the Ice is full of impeccably researched historical detail, everything from food and drink to social and religious customs. I thoroughly recommend reading the Author’s Note which reveals how many of the characters and events in the book are situated in historical fact, such as the Great Frost of 1607 which forms the backdrop to the book and inspires its title. I also loved that the glossary goes beyond brief definitions, for example explaining the role that kingfishers played in a Tudor and Stuart household or revealing more information about Sussex’s rival to the Loch Ness Monster.

Of course, there’s also a mystery to be solved which turns out to be a whole lot more complicated than first imagined involving, amongst other things, priest holes, ‘leopards’ and buried treasure. I thoroughly enjoyed Traitor in the Ice. As well as featuring some fascinating characters, such as the mysterious Cimex and Viscountess Montague’s ward, Katheryne (described as a combination of ‘virgin, nymph and witch’), it has a great sense of time and place. Plus the author leaves plenty of deliciously enticing loose ends to be picked up in future books (I hope).

My thanks to Rachel at Rachel Quin Marketing for arranging my digital review copy of Traitor in the Ice via NetGalley.

In three words: Intriguing, suspenseful, immersive

Try something similar: The Poison Bed by E. C. Fremantle

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K J Maitland Karen MaitlandAbout the Author

Karen Maitland is an historical novelist, lecturer and teacher of Creative Writing, with over twenty books to her name. She grew up in Malta, which inspired her passion for history, and travelled and worked all over the world before settling in the United Kingdom. She has a doctorate in psycholinguistics, and now lives on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon

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