This one was a bit of an impulse buy for me, a what the hell, why not book. I don't normally go for murder mysteries but I love historical fiction, and I've never read a book set during the Protectorate, so it was an interesting change of pace for me. Luckily I really enjoyed this book.

Characters
One of my favourite character archetypes is the mystery man, the character we know very little about, and learn even less. Damian Seeker is one such character. He's an enigma. The only solid facts we know about him is that he is from the north and was a soldier, and little else is revealed. It didn't bother me at all to not uncover all the hidden truths about Seeker's past. I have lots of questions and received few answers but I'm not annoyed, I'm intrigued. All I want to do now is read the next book and see what else I can glean about his character.

He's a man of immense presence. Everyone is scared of him and no one wants to fuck with him. He doesn't care about showing his emotions of making friends. He's a get shit done kinda guy and loved that about him.

Other than the Seeker himself, there is a pretty amazing and well fleshed out cast around him. There are quite a few, so I won't mention them all, but the fact that there is so many and they all have their secrets only makes the story more interesting.
Who can we trust, who's telling the truth? This is a book that keeps us asking these questions right till the end.

Plot
Set in 1654 in Cromwell's Britain. Damian Seeker is the captain of Oliver Cromwell's guard. He handles all security issues while also acting as Cromwell's bodyguard, and he would protect the Lord Protector with his life.

Within the walls of Whitehall Palace where Cromwell resides, the dreadful murder of loyal soldier John Winter takes place. Seeker finds the body at the same moment lawyer and propagandist Elias Ellingworth does and he is immediately arrested, yet John Winter's widow is adamant it wasn't him.

In his grim quest for the truth and to bring justice to the real murderer, Seeker dives further into the dark underbelly of 17th century London. It is while trying to source the real killer that Seeker gets caught up in numerous other illegal activities around London and Oxford such as murder, slave trades and royalist conspiracies.

There were many bits that I never saw coming and wouldn't have guessed, such as the true murderer, the many connections between the characters, or even the dog. Reading this was like a puzzle. Each chapter revealed another piece but I never grasped the whole picture until just enough pieces fell in place.
Very cleverly done.

Writing Style
This story is told in Third Person Multiple. We jump between character perspectives but only ever learn as much as the character learns or reveals at that time, but given that we learn through multiple perspectives, we sometimes know more of what's happening than they do. On the odd occasion the characters know more than us and we have to wait for the big reveal.

I found this book really easy to read. It never felt bogged down by the language of the time, yet also still had a sense of the way people may have talked. The descriptions were vivid, never shying from the dark and gritty truth of what would have been a chaotic and poverty-stricken London. Every sight, every smell, every intrigue and every disgust, I was right there with these characters.

The pacing started out really well, slowed a little in the middle, but then kicked it up a gear towards the latter part of the book and I simply couldn't put it down.

Final Impression
On the whole I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely be reading the sequel. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to try historical fiction set in the Protectorate era for the first time or for anyone who just wants to gain a little understanding of what times were like during this period without having to pick up a stuffy non-fiction. It really gives a true sense of the times and was well researched.