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annieheinsen's review
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
tommooney's review against another edition
3.0
This was alright. Great setting, nicely written and initially a good premise.
But Miller seems far more interested in depicting the time period we'll than he is in developing characters or giving us some plot. It lacks the burning fire you need in this kind of story. If you're essentially going to write a book where one character pursues another, there has to be more drama than this, more urgency.
It's decent but bland and is a million miles away from top class historical fiction, such as Daniel Kehlmann's Tyll or Benjamin Myers' The Gallows Pole.
But Miller seems far more interested in depicting the time period we'll than he is in developing characters or giving us some plot. It lacks the burning fire you need in this kind of story. If you're essentially going to write a book where one character pursues another, there has to be more drama than this, more urgency.
It's decent but bland and is a million miles away from top class historical fiction, such as Daniel Kehlmann's Tyll or Benjamin Myers' The Gallows Pole.
alexrafinski's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This is a great adventure story that is hard to put down. The author's descriptions of the many different places that the book visits, really transports you to a different age. And the characters are very well drawn - you really want to know what happens to them all (even the "bad" ones)!
groadie's review
adventurous
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I found it a bit confusing how the story shifted from domestic (the housekeeper nursing the returned soldier) to slightly absurd (arriving at an island on a cow, eating raw eggs and laudenam-induced delirium) and then to romance/thriller as Emily and Lacroix become more sympathetic to each other and Calley and Medina come closer to hunting them down (with one bizarre run-in with a sort of river cult). The book ends far too abruptly and had an undertone of despair that I couldn't shake— it's not obvious, but I feel like I wouldn't want to read this if I was feeling seasonally affected.
Despite this, the prose is unmatched and descriptive in just the right way, suggesting and guiding the imagination but never too much. Really lovely to read and also a masterful building of tension at the end!
Despite this, the prose is unmatched and descriptive in just the right way, suggesting and guiding the imagination but never too much. Really lovely to read and also a masterful building of tension at the end!
lgiegerich's review against another edition
3.0
I think reading this book in small, piecemeal chunks lessened its effect.
jamjarmusch's review against another edition
4.0
I enjoyed it overall but didn't really rate the revelation that "It was Calley! It was Calley all along!"
jennifer_c_s's review
4.5
‘It came through lanes crazy with rain, its sides slabbed with mud, its wheels throwing arcs of mud behind it.’
1809, Somerset, England. On a rain-swept night, an unconscious man is carried into his home. Captain John Lacroix is home from the war against Napoleon’s forces in Spain. With the help of his housekeeper, Nell, he recovers in body but not in spirit. He is haunted by what happened during the retreat to Corunna but cannot speak of it.
Captain Lacroix is commanded to return to his regiment, but instead sets off for the Hebrides. He hopes to find peace there. And so, Captain John Lacroix sets off, unaware that he is being hunted. Two soldiers, Corporal Calley an English corporal, and Medina, a Spanish cavalry officer have been commissioned to track him down and kill him: he was in charge of the soldiers who committed an atrocity in the village of Morales during the retreat to Corunna.
As John Lovall, he finds a temporary haven and form of peace on a remote island with Cornelius Frend and his sisters Emily and Jane. But Emily needs medical attention, and John accompanies her to Glasgow.
‘He had been acquainted with the Frends less than a fortnight. A man who arrives on the back of a cow, who does not speak about his past.’
The story shifts between Lacroix and his pursuers. While their paths meet, briefly in Glasgow, this is not the resolution of the chase.
‘Medina wrote the list by candlelight in the room he shared with the stranger in Glasgow, the inn he himself had chosen when they came back from Dumbarton, for if he was still taking the corporal’s orders he was also, of late, experimenting with insistence and finding it sometimes worked.’
I’ll stop here. There’s a tension in this story that would be broken (and could ruin the read) if the ending is known in advance. I opened this book and stepped into a world of conflict and violence, with elements of beauty and the possibility (for some) of choice.
Highly recommended.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
1809, Somerset, England. On a rain-swept night, an unconscious man is carried into his home. Captain John Lacroix is home from the war against Napoleon’s forces in Spain. With the help of his housekeeper, Nell, he recovers in body but not in spirit. He is haunted by what happened during the retreat to Corunna but cannot speak of it.
Captain Lacroix is commanded to return to his regiment, but instead sets off for the Hebrides. He hopes to find peace there. And so, Captain John Lacroix sets off, unaware that he is being hunted. Two soldiers, Corporal Calley an English corporal, and Medina, a Spanish cavalry officer have been commissioned to track him down and kill him: he was in charge of the soldiers who committed an atrocity in the village of Morales during the retreat to Corunna.
As John Lovall, he finds a temporary haven and form of peace on a remote island with Cornelius Frend and his sisters Emily and Jane. But Emily needs medical attention, and John accompanies her to Glasgow.
‘He had been acquainted with the Frends less than a fortnight. A man who arrives on the back of a cow, who does not speak about his past.’
The story shifts between Lacroix and his pursuers. While their paths meet, briefly in Glasgow, this is not the resolution of the chase.
‘Medina wrote the list by candlelight in the room he shared with the stranger in Glasgow, the inn he himself had chosen when they came back from Dumbarton, for if he was still taking the corporal’s orders he was also, of late, experimenting with insistence and finding it sometimes worked.’
I’ll stop here. There’s a tension in this story that would be broken (and could ruin the read) if the ending is known in advance. I opened this book and stepped into a world of conflict and violence, with elements of beauty and the possibility (for some) of choice.
Highly recommended.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
clmckinney's review against another edition
4.0
This is a novel about a soldier in the victorian age. He is being accosted by another military man. I really liked the use of language in this book. It is both poetic and sparse. There were elements of the plot that I didn't love but in the end, the finale brought me back around. This novel certainly has literary relevance. For this it gets a 3.8/5.