It is the year 1660, and after the eleven years under the Protectorship of the recently deceased Oliver Cromwell, the monarchy has been restored in the person of Charles II. And there are scores to be settled. Under the Act of Oblivion, those who were directly involved in the execution of Charles I are to pay with their lives.
Fifty-nine ‘regicides’ signed the King’s death warrant and forty-six are accounted for (executed, awaiting execution, or otherwise dead) leaving thirteen still at large. Among those are Colonel Edward Whalley and his son-in-law Colonel William Goffe, now fled to America where they hope the puritan colonists will shelter them.
Back in London, Richard Naylor, clerk to the Privy Council, reports to the Lord Chancellor that his network of spies and informants have tracked Whalley and Goffe’s departure. His zeal in tracking them down is more than professional, he has an old, bitter score to settle. Cue a hunt as Naylor uses the power of the new king to flush out and pursue the two colonels across New England.
The action alternates between America, where Whalley and Goffe struggle to keep undercover in the sparsely populated wilderness, and London, where their families remain hidden in the teeming city.
It is a long 550 page read, but it covers a lot of ground going forward – including the fire of London and a plague or two – and some history flashbacks as Naylor recollects the Civil War from a Royalist viewpoint and Whalley pens a memoir of his time in his cousin Cromwell’s New Model Army. However, the pages fly by easily with Harris’s fluent prose and narrative flair all the way to an exciting and uncertain climax.
In summary, a good
story, based on fact, well told.
