Two very different novels, both 2022

 

Penguin paperback edition - 2023

Once again, it was due to my daughter's generosity that I had these two novels to read on a lovely relaxing holiday spent at Bamburgh in Northumberland. The area possesses not only splendid castles and wide sandy beaches, but also some pretty awesome sand dunes. I mention these because they occur in Tim Weaver's book as a major clue. Labelled 'The Mystery of Gatton Hill' by the media, David Raker is brought in by the family of one of the 'victims' to work out where the occupants of a black Land Rover Discovery, which had ended up on its roof and a ragged tangle of metal aflame at the bottom of a ravine, have gone. Instead of bodies being turned to ash, there is no-one inside. The erstwhile occupants were Cate and Aiden Gascoigne. There were two witnesses who had arrived just after the car left the road - Zoe Simmons, a young woman,and a 61-year-old retiree called Audrey Calvert. Cate was a photographer, who travelled the country as well as exhibiting at a London gallery. After investigating the site of the crash and the information given by a CCTV camera on the road, Raker realizes they did not leap out of the car before it went of the road; nor could they have escaped without help from the blazing wreck. He soon realises the witnesses were perhaps a key - what if they were lying?

Raker meets up with Georgia, Cate's sister, who tells him the latter was drawn to the tragic and loved writing as well as photography. Recently, Cate had not wanted Georgia to see what she was researching; additionally, Georgia overheard her sister on the telephone to someone and she heard one word: dunes. From then on, the novel twist and turns as Raker uncovers a fiendish plot. It takes him to Northumbria and to the story of girls being found murdered and hidden in the Bamburgh dunes three decades ago. It also brings in the story of Amelia, a girl forced to deal with an unwanted pregnancy, her parents, and the police officer who was an investigator into those murders. The stories thirty years apart are skilfully woven together and this reader for one was genuinely caught out in several of the twists. There is also a sub plot, which involves Healy, a friend from Raker's past (and previous books) which is drawn into the main story, thanks to the evil machinations of one who proves to be the 'baddie'.

However, a feeling gradually came over me (and particularly after I had finished the book) that the author was almost too clever for his characters! I have never thought this before. The main 'baddie' was fiendishly brilliant and, not surprisingly, managed to outwit just about everyone else. Weaver is clearly a master of this kind of suspense novel and one look at the list of books he has written previously - with titles like Vanished, Never Coming Back, I Am Missing and You Were Gone - shows he has carved out a niche with his protagonist and missing person hunter, David Raker. He is to be commended on his ability to keep the reader guessing.

Penguin paperback edition - 2023

This is a very different novel from The Black Bird. It is the story of the manhunt for the killers (those who signed the death warrant) of King Charles I. The author is well-known for the depth of his research, the grasp of his historical feeling and the appealing mixture of both character and landscape based stories. This time it switches between Restoration London, mainly pre-Plague and Fire, and the pre-revolutionary New World. In his Author's Note, he says the novel is an imaginative re-creation of a true story...in particular, the pursuit of Edward Whalley and William Goffe across New England.

The author's 'homework' is particularly apparent when he is describing the environment into which his characters are plunged, particularly with the slum areas of London, pre the Great Fire, and the forbidding wilderness of New England. With the latter he reminds me rather of John Buchan, another author who could give you the 'taste' and 'feel' of the landscape and weather. Harris is good with his description of characters, even if the only totally fictitious one is the Regicide-finder-General, Richard Nayler. The latter's relentless and obsessive pursuit of the regicides is well described, as are the characters of Whalley and Goffe. Harris is good on distinguishing between the various levels of Puritanism, from the tolerant do-gooders to the fanatics. Occasionally the pace slows too much, perhaps the result of the author's determination to put the 'fact' into 'faction'.  The politics, religion, colonial life of the time are well delineated and Harris adds the right amount of the thriller - the propulsion of hunter and prey - to elevate the story above a mere historical plodder. Well worth the read.