Jack Treby Online

The Gunpowder Treason

"This is one of the few good historical novels I have ever read and I cannot sing its praises too loudly. It bestrides three genres, the thriller, historical fiction and what is often called 'faction'.... Of course, the plot revolves around the best-known criminal conspiracy in the Anglo-Saxon canon...but it reads like a thriller. We are carried on from one chapter to the next almost as though we didn't know what was going to happen next and the pace never lets up. [The] writer knows it's not a question of what happened - any ten year old could tell you - it's why and how and who made it happen... Supporting all this is the understanding and scholarship of a writer who knows his period and the actors in his drama. We live with the conspirators, we breathe the stink of fear and our guts churn at the hopelessness of their situation... but we also understand them and what makes them act. We feel sympathy for each of them. And yet the author never tries to re-invent the characters - they are pretty much what we know them to have been... brought alive for us within the confines of historical fact.... When you finish it you almost feel cheated that the plot did not succeed. In her book on the Plot, Antonia Fraser repeats a commonly held view, 'Guy Fawkes was the only man who has ever entered Parliament for the right reasons.' Catesby, Percy, Mr Tom, Guido - where are you all now when we need you? So much more attractive than The Daily Telegraph as the destroyer of Parliaments."

- Alan Hamilton, author of Two Unknown (Sparkling Books)

"I couldn't help but think what an awesome movie this would make...authentic and exquisitely researched."

- N Gemini Sasson, author of Isabeau and The Bruce Trilogy

"...a swift and tantalising read, vivid and very entertaining.”

- Adventures of a London Kiwi


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