Tag: Reading Challenges

Book Review – A Plague of Serpents by K. J. Maitland

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About the Book

Book cover of A Plague of Serpents by K. J. Maitland

London, 1608. Three years after the Gunpowder Treason, the King’s enemies prepare to strike again.

Daniel Pursglove is tasked by royal command with one final mission: he must infiltrate the Serpents – a secret group of Catholics plotting to kill the King – or risk his own execution. But other conspirators are circling, men who would blackmail Daniel for their own dark ends.

In the Serpents’ den, nothing is quite as it seems. And when Daniel spies a familiar face among their number, the game takes a dangerous turn.

As plague returns to London, tensions reach breaking point. Can Daniel escape the web of treason in which he finds himself ensnared – or has his luck finally run out?

Format: eARC (432 pages) Publisher: Headline
Publication date: 25th April 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery

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My Review

A Plague of Serpents is the fourth and final book in the author’s Daniel Pursglove series comprising The Drowned City, Traitor in the Ice and Rivers of Treason. (Links from each title will take you to my reviews.) The author is renowned for constructing complex plots and this book is no exception. In addition there are many characters to get to know, not all of whom may be what they profess to be, and the true identity of others remains shrouded in mystery. For these reasons I think it would be a struggle to fully enjoy the book without having read the previous three. To be honest, I struggled a bit for a time and I have read all three! (If you don’t have the time or inclination to read the series from the beginning but would like to experience the author’s work then I’d suggest trying one of her standalone historical novels such as The Plague Charmer set in the time of the Black Death.)

The thread that runs through all the Daniel Pursglove books is the search for Spero Pettingar, the only conspirator involved in the Gunpowder Plot who is still at large. As I mentioned in my review of the first book in the series, it wasn’t until I read the historical notes at the end of the book that I realised Spero Pettingar was a real historical figure. For much of the book, I was convinced his name was an anagram! Although having said that, perhaps there is some significance to his peculiar name after all…

King James remains conscious of the continued threat to his life, taking elaborate precautions to prevent being poisioned. He’s right to be vigilant because there are at least two groups who would like to see him dead, either to put their own choice of successor on the throne or to have no monarch at all. And if one group does the job for the other, all well and good.

It’s not just in the Royal court that there exists an atmosphere of mistrust. It’s the same in wider society as well, especially if you’re secretly practising the Catholic faith. ‘Friends, neighbours, brothers, servants, even your own children were not to be trusted. Anyone could be bribed or threatened.’

Daniel makes a spirited hero who’s handy with a dagger, able to blend into the shadows and an expert at ‘charming’ locks. Although the master of narrow escapes, even he makes the odd mistake with the result that he finds himself in some dangerous situations. There are lots of people who want to find out exactly what he knows and don’t have any compunction in using force to do so.

Natural phenomena have provided the background to all the books. In The Drowned City it was a devastating wave in the Bristol Channel, in Traitor in the Ice it was the Great Frost of 1607 and in Rivers of Treason it was the impact of the previous two on the livelihoods of the population: farmland ruined by salt from the flood, cattle and sheep drowned or frozen and winter wheat wiped out by frost. This time the Black Death is making a stealthy return and no-one is safe from that.

As always, the author conjures up the sights, sounds and smells of London – the latter being invariably unpleasant. We’re taken to familiar places like taverns and markets, but also introduced to occupations such as palterer, gong farmer and clank napper. If you’ve no idea what the last three are, check out the Glossary in which you’ll find the answers along with definitions of things such as ‘stool ducketts’, ‘muggets’ and ‘furuncles’. Oh, and whether you should take offence if you’re called a ‘snoutband’ or a ‘princock’.

As the book moves towards its close, we finally learn more about the events in Daniel’s past that have haunted his dreams and left him with an overwhelming sense of guilt for so long. There is also a final reckoning involving two key figures in Daniel’s life. However, the author resists the temptation to tie everything up leaving the reader to imagine for themselves what the future holds for some of the characters we’ve got to know.

I received a review copy courtesy of Headline via NetGalley.

In three words: Intricate, immersive, suspenseful
Try something similar: The Sinner’s Mark by S. W. Perry

About the Author

Author Karen Maitland aka K. J. Maitland

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. (Photo/bio credit: Author website)

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Book Review – James by Percival Everett

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About the Book

book cover of James by Percival Everett

The Mississippi River, 1861. When the enslaved Jim overhears that he is about to be sold to a new owner in New Orleans and separated from his wife and daughter forever, he decides to hide on nearby Jackson’s Island until he can formulate a plan. Meanwhile, Huck Finn has faked his own death to escape his violent father who recently returned to town. Thus begins a dangerous and transcendent journey by raft along the Mississippi River, towards the elusive promise of the free states and beyond. As James and Huck begin to navigate the treacherous waters, each bend in the river holds the promise of both salvation and demise.

With rumours of a brewing war, James must face the burden he the family he is desperate to protect and the constant lie he must live. And together, the unlikely pair must face the most dangerous odyssey of them all . .

Format: eARC (313 pages) Publisher: Mantle
Publication date: 11th April 2024 Genre: Historical Fiction

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My Review

If I ever read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn it was probably at school and, if I did, I remember next to nothing about the story. If you’re in the same position, I’d recommend reading a summary of Mark Twain’s book so you can appreciate the ways in which Percival Everett has reimagined the story, especially in the first part of the book. This follows broadly the events in Huckleberry Finn but told from the point of view of the enslaved Jim. He prefers the name James but, of course, as a slave he’s used to being addressed in far more abusive terms.

James is not the person his owner thinks he is. He’s intelligent, knowledgeable, can read and write, and possesses an extensive vocabulary. At one point he debates with another slave whether something is ‘proleptic irony’ or ‘dramatic irony’. There’s sly humour in the fact the slaves use eloquent language when conversing amongst themselves but adopt a way of speaking they believe their masters expect when in their presence. “White folks expect us to sound a certain way and it can only help if we don’t disappoint them.” It’s as if their only power is to hide their true selves.

Escaping with Huck on a flimsy raft, the pair have many adventures on their voyage along the Mississippi. There are narrow escapes from death and they encounter many colourful, but not necessarily commendable, characters. Each saves the other from potential death at some point but, of course, it’s James who risks certain death if he is recaptured. Although Huck and James form a bond, there are still things James keeps from him, such as hiding the fact he can read. Other things as well.

In later sections of the book, the pair are separated for a time and it’s just James’s experiences we witness. This includes the bizarre episode when James is recruited into a minstrel show and finds himself a black man disguised as a white man entertaining white people by pretending to be a black man. They even perform a cakewalk, something actually intended to mock white people but which their audience doesn’t realise. A double irony, notes James.

The book doesn’t shy away from describing the brutality endured by enslaved people: the grotesquely harsh punishments for minor offences, the sexual abuse of women and young girls. And for all James’s intelligence, he’s still the possession of another person, and so are his wife and children. His desperation to be reunited with them is inspiring but also heart-breaking as we witness just what it’s like to have no power over your own future.

James is a brilliantly inventive, subversive retelling of an American classic that touches on issues of inequality that persist today. I can see it winning many literary prizes.

I received a digital review copy courtesy of Mantle Books via NetGalley.

In three words: Powerful, clever, thought-provoking.
Try something similar: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

About the Author

Author Percival Everett

Percival Everett is the author of over thirty books, including So Much Blue, Telephone, Dr No and The Trees, which was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize and won the 2022 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. He has received the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the PEN Center USA Award for Fiction, has been a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and is Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. His novel Erasure has now been adapted into the major film American Fiction. He lives in Los Angeles. (Image: Goodreads author page}