The Swift and the Harrier by Minette Walters

-


The Swift and the Harrier by Minette Walters

Jayne Swift has focused her life on being a physician, so she avoids offers of marriage.  The Swift and the Harrier by Minette Walters starts out with Jayne trying to get through a rough crowd of execution gawkers so that she can get to her cousin's house to treat her sick nephew.  She gets pushed into a doorway and ends up taking refuge there so that she doesn't get crushed by the crowd.  This event brings her together with William Harrier, who appears to be a footman at the residence, although mysteriously may not be.

Unfortunately, I had difficulty with the PDF that I received through NetGalley so this slowed my reading progress of this novel.  Overall, it is a really good story centred around the English civil war, the black death and the treatment of the ill at Lyme Regis.  That said, I did find that it was overly descriptive in places which did impact my attention span (I admit to flipping pages to speed the story up).  It is evident that a lot of research went into the development of this novel, although there were some actions that my not have been entirely consistent with the time period.  I would highly recommend to readers who enjoy the English Civil War period and strong women characters.  


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Study in Steam by Stephanie Clemens

-
Image
A great kick off to a new steampunk murder mystery series. Sign me up for the next semester at Grantabridge U with the Ladies of Wack!  A Study in Steam  by Stephanie Clemens is the first book in the Ladies of WACK series. What the heck does WACK stand for, you ask? Well, this book is the start of a friendship between four intelligent young ladies in a new academic society called the Women Adventurers' Consortium of Knowledge. A Study in Steam  introduces us to Pippa Stanhope, an innovative and feisty young lady who dreams of attending university to further her steam engineering knowledge. Easier said than done in Victorian times. Her mother is adamant that no respectable lady in 1870's Brythion would do such a thing. She will harm their family reputation, and no eligible Duke will want to marry such a bluestocking! Undeterred and thanks to financial support from her independently wealthy aunt, Pippa heads off to Grantabridge University to learn everything t...
Read more

Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney Boylan

-
Image
This isn't my typical type of read but I just can't seem to pass up books that revolve around bees and honey.  It is so well written that I finished reading it in one day.  I was surprised that this was written by two authors as it has such a smooth flow and consistent voice.  Each of the characters was well-developed, and the story drew you in.  I had to keep reading to figure out what happened to Olivia, Asher and Lily.  I loved how the apiculture scenes were woven throughout the book and I admit to having a few sniffles about the tradition to inform the bees about a death in the family. I thought I had guessed what was going to happen and I was completely wrong!  Definitely recommended. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC and to the authors -- well done! 
Read more