Claire Letemendia

Historical novels have to embed us in their time, engage with the historical hook they have chosen and keep us guessing about how much of the plot will entwine with reality. Claire Letemendia has done a pretty good job here. Her historical background is strong and the everyday lives of the characters rings true. The plotting shifts the focus across many possible villains to keep us guessing. The hero, Laurence Beaumont, seems too good to be true - handsome, clever, a rebel - so it comes as a relief and a surprise to find he is a poor swordsman. The length of time taken for characters to communicate and the unreliability of those communications is a clever plot device and may surprise some in this always-on world, but contributes to the veracity of the world Letemendia describes.… (mais)

An interesting novel that portrays the tragic, faltering drift into the English Civil War in the 1640s. In particular, it succeeds in conveying how the war wasn't inevitable, with individuals on both sides desperately seeking a conclusion even as hostilities got underway, but were thwarted by those with a more aggressive mindset. The lead character, Laurence Beaumont, is the son of a minor noble and a veteran of the previous continental wars, who becomes slowly becomes drawn into intelligence work on behalf of Charles I's spymaster. It isn't great literature, but it is a very readable novel.… (mais)

There’s a civil war being fought in and while Laurence Beaumont is fighting in it, he’s also deciphered a coded plot with the help of his old tutor Seward. They discover that it’s a plot to kill the King but who’s written it and who was written too?
Set in England in 1642, it’s told in the third person narrative. This book was ok, I especially liked the character of Beaumont who stands to gain a lot with his noble birthright but being a bit of a cad he just doesn’t find it appealing. The other characters were good, however there was a downside to this book for me, too many characters, I lost sight of who was siding with the King and who was siding with Parliament. It did slightly spoil my pleasure in reading this book. In fact I got too about page 200 and started it again as I had lost sight of who was who. I wasn’t much wiser the second time around but wanted to finish it to see what happened with certain characters.
I would recommend this book but while the plot was accessible, too many characters made it distracting.… (mais)

A thriller that really works, because the danger is consistently believable and woven into a story full of interesting characters who do a lot more than just get beaten up and run from the bad guys. Laurence Beaumont has just returned to England from the Continent where he has been fighting in the Thirty Years War. He has seen warfare and its horrors up close for much too long and is utterly sick of it. But in England, where he had hoped to reconnect with an old flame and enjoy some peace and quiet, the tensions that will result in the English Civil War are rapidly rising. Meanwhile, as he was escaping from the war on the Continent, Beaumont impulsively stole some papers written in code. Someone wants them back badly enough to kill for them.… (mais)