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Scoundrel (the sailing thrillers, #5)
Scoundrel (the sailing thrillers, #5)
Bernard Cornwell | 1993 | Fiction & Poetry
3
3.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
It's been a long time since a book has made me this angry.

Maybe because I'm *from* Belfast, Northern Ireland and have relatives who lived through the period of history colloquially known as The Troubles (I was a teenager in the 90s, when they 'ended', and when this is set), so know exactly what the IRA and their loyalist counterparts were/are like.

It made my blood boil to read passages in this where they were treated as heroes by some in Boston (and, yes, I know it's a fiction book): surely to goodness nobody could be that naive??

Anyway, I normally like Bernard Cornwell (Author) novels.

I know he spent a bit of time here (the BBC, I believe?), before moving to the States.

His knowledge of landmarks does show.

I would have thought he would have known better, though, in how he portrays the tangled mess that is politics and history that went on in this fair isle.

Sorry, Mr Paul Shanahan: you're unlikeable as a lead character; no match to a Richard Sharpe or an Uhtred of Bebbanburg.

(his other stand-alone sailing thrillers - those I have read, at least - are all much better)
  
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ClareR (5933 KP) rated Becky in Books

May 29, 2023  
Becky
Becky
Sarah May | 2023 | Contemporary, Fiction & Poetry
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Becky is a retelling of Vanity Fair - which I haven’t read - so I only really know what other people have said about it, really. Regardless of my lack of background knowledge, I can safely say that you will be able to enjoy this novel without any Regency or Victorian novel reading background.

I tore through this. When you realise that for the meteoric rise of the main character, Becky, there will be a plummet, it’s a case of morbid fascination!

And like the original, this is a story without a hero. None of the men are particularly “dashing”, or nice, in fact. Becky isn’t a likeable character either. She knows what she wants, and will do anything in the dirty world of tabloid “news” to get it.

I couldn’t stop reading this, and I closed the book after the last page thinking: “Well THAT was a good job!”

So hopefully I haven’t given too much away, and if you’ve read any of my other reviews, you’ll know that I love to hate a character, and Becky has this particular trait in spades!
It’s a cracking read!
  
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