Intriguing Restoration mystery!
An Abiding Fire: Murder and Mystery in Restoration London (Thomazine and Major Russell #1)
by M. J. Logue
Fascinating mystery set during the Restoration times of 1663. Charles II is on the throne and expectations are somewhat murky for all parties.
The two leading characters are unusual. The battle scarred Major Thankful Russell and his newly wedded younger wife, Thomazine Babbitt.
Thankful is an ex-Roundhead and now a King's Intellegencer. The time has come for him to marry and he casts his hopes on the girl he knew as a young child. Many years his junior, Thomazine (Tibby) has loved Thankful since she was a child and sees only the Thankful she's grown up with, not his scars. "She’d considered him her especial property since she was two years old and he twenty-one."
Thankful has decided they will make their home in the manor house of Four Ashes, Buckinghamshire, where he grew up with his sister, a nasty piece of work, rigorously Puritan, married to the idea of works and punishment. Grace is not a concept she even understood.
Fly-Fornication Coventry had died in a house fire and Thankful has decided to rebuild the manor for himself and Thomazine. What he doesn't know is that Fly was murdered. And that first killing was only the beginning.
Thankful and Thomazine find themselves shunned by polite society in Buckinghamshire, (rumors of Thankful having somehow started the fire seem to have spread) and so return to London.
It's here, on the less salubrious edges of Charles II's court that Thankful and Thomazine find themselves in even more danger.
Logue has given us a fascinating insight into Restoration times, the day-to-day rigors of life, the political undercurrents, and the beginnings of the wars with the Low Countries. I recommend her Historical Notes for more and pertinent comments on the Anglo-Ditch Wars.
I really enjoyed Thankful and Thomazine as characters. Thankful with his understated strengths, a soldier turned Intellegencer-courtier, where the soldier is not far below the surface, and Thomazine, with her willingness to dangerously rush into things, her red hair and her temper that sometimes will just 'out'.
I'm looking forward to their future.
A Sapere ARC via NetGalley
*****
by M. J. Logue
The two leading characters are unusual. The battle scarred Major Thankful Russell and his newly wedded younger wife, Thomazine Babbitt.
Thankful is an ex-Roundhead and now a King's Intellegencer. The time has come for him to marry and he casts his hopes on the girl he knew as a young child. Many years his junior, Thomazine (Tibby) has loved Thankful since she was a child and sees only the Thankful she's grown up with, not his scars. "She’d considered him her especial property since she was two years old and he twenty-one."
Thankful has decided they will make their home in the manor house of Four Ashes, Buckinghamshire, where he grew up with his sister, a nasty piece of work, rigorously Puritan, married to the idea of works and punishment. Grace is not a concept she even understood.
Fly-Fornication Coventry had died in a house fire and Thankful has decided to rebuild the manor for himself and Thomazine. What he doesn't know is that Fly was murdered. And that first killing was only the beginning.
Thankful and Thomazine find themselves shunned by polite society in Buckinghamshire, (rumors of Thankful having somehow started the fire seem to have spread) and so return to London.
It's here, on the less salubrious edges of Charles II's court that Thankful and Thomazine find themselves in even more danger.
Logue has given us a fascinating insight into Restoration times, the day-to-day rigors of life, the political undercurrents, and the beginnings of the wars with the Low Countries. I recommend her Historical Notes for more and pertinent comments on the Anglo-Ditch Wars.
I really enjoyed Thankful and Thomazine as characters. Thankful with his understated strengths, a soldier turned Intellegencer-courtier, where the soldier is not far below the surface, and Thomazine, with her willingness to dangerously rush into things, her red hair and her temper that sometimes will just 'out'.
I'm looking forward to their future.
A Sapere ARC via NetGalley
*****
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