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David McK (3673 KP) rated Resurrectionist (Matthew Hawkwood, #2) in Books

Jan 30, 2019

The sequel to 2006's Ratcatcher, Resurrectionist again follows the exploits of Matthew Hawkwood: a former army officer now working as a Bow Street Runner.

While Ratcatcher, in many respects, was a straight-forward action/adventure set in Regency London, this novel is more of a mystery/crime novel. This time, Captain Hawkwood is on the trail of body-snatchers - colloquially known as 'Resurrection men' - and of an escaped convict from Bedlam Hospital. Initially believing the two cases to be distinct, this later proves to be far from the case ...

Body-snatching was - and is - a pretty gruesome business, and McGee doesn't shy away from the full import of what the grave-diggers were involved in, with some of the scenes described not for the squeamish! Similarly, the early years of medical science are also touched upon - again, some of those scenes are not for the squeamish.

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David McK (3673 KP) rated Traitor's Blood (Civil War Chronicles #1) in Books

Jan 30, 2019

Billed as 'The Sharpe of the Civil War' (ever notice how these types of novels always use that character as their benchmark?), it's easy to see the influence of Cornwell's most famous creation on this novel, which (according to the author) is the first in a planned series of 10 books set during the English Civil War.

This is told from the POV of a soldier in the (doomed) Royalist army: a soldier who has a history with some in authority (like Sharpe and Wellesley), and who is chosen to go behind the enemy lines on a top secret mission (again, like Sharpe), with the beginning and end of the novel taking place during one of the battles of that war (yet again, just like a Sharpe novel ...). Enjoyable enough, and gets off to a strong start, but is just not as polished as one of Cornwells books. Still, an impressive effort for a debut novel, and I may pick up more of the sequels ...