Welcome to my blog! On Wednesdays I write a post about the books I have read during the previous week. As I keep track of them on the Goodreads website, I use their links to put my short reviews/responses on here. Today’s post is about two very different books. Here is the first one…

I think that I have read most of Robert Harris’s books, so I was really looking forward to this one: Act of Oblivion. This is the blurb:

“From what is it they flee?’

He took a while to reply. By the time he spoke the men had gone inside. He said quietly, “They killed the King.”

1660 England. General Edward Whalley and his son-in law Colonel William Goffe board a ship bound for the New World. They are on the run, wanted for the murder of King Charles I–a brazen execution that marked the culmination of the English Civil War, in which parliamentarians successfully battled royalists for control.

But now, ten years after Charles’ beheading, the royalists have returned to power. Under the provisions of the Act of Oblivion, the fifty-nine men who signed the king’s death warrant and participated in his execution have been found guilty in absentia of high treason. Some of the Roundheads, including Oliver Cromwell, are already dead. Others have been captured, hung, drawn, and quartered. A few are imprisoned for life. But two have escaped to America by boat.

In London, Richard Nayler, secretary of the regicide committee of the Privy Council, is charged with bringing the traitors to justice and he will stop at nothing to find them. A substantial bounty hangs over their heads for their capture–dead or alive. . . .

Robert Harris’s first historical novel set predominantly in America, Act of Oblivion is a novel with an urgent narrative, remarkable characters, and an epic true story to tell of religion, vengeance, and power–and the costs to those who wield it.”

And this is my response on Goodreads:

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To be honest, I am really unsure how I feel about this book. It was clearly well researched – the historical detail was quite stunning. The descriptions of the landscapes and the settlements in 17th century America were really interesting. The book was about a period in history of which I have very little knowledge, apart from a favourite book which I loved as a child: Captain Marryat’s The Children of the New Forrest!

Some sections were really interesting descriptions of events during and after the Civil War. Other parts of the plot involved more exciting moments of hunting and escape, extending over many years.

However, all of this was so patchy and not well paced. The ending was also very sudden and abrupt. I feel that Harris has definitely written better books.

View all my reviews

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After finishing this book, I had something very different waiting in the queue…

The second book of the week was Jo Callaghan’s In the Blink of an Eye. Here is the blurb:

“In the UK, someone is reported missing every 90 seconds.
Just gone. Vanished. In the blink of an eye. 

DCS Kat Frank knows all about loss. A widowed single mother, Kat is a cop who trusts her instincts. Picked to lead a pilot programme that has her paired with AIDE (Artificially Intelligent Detective Entity) Lock, Kat’s instincts come up against Lock’s logic. But when the two missing person’s cold cases they are reviewing suddenly become active, Lock is the only one who can help Kat when the case gets personal. 

AI versus human experience. 
Logic versus instinct.
With lives on the line can the pair work together before someone else becomes another statistic?”

I was very intrigued by this blurb and was really looking forward to reading the book. This is what I wrote on Goodreads:

In The Blink of An Eye by Jo Callaghan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book and read it quite quickly. The partnership between a human police detective and an AI detective was an intriguing idea and it worked well in this first book. I assume it is going to be a series. I also expect that AI will become a very popular theme in fiction writing, so this was an interesting introduction for me.

That being said, I am not sure whether I will continue with the series, as I began to find the AI interventions extremely irritating as I got closer to the end of the book. But, that’s just me. I am sure that other readers will really enjoy this book.

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Both of this week’s books were four out of five stars for me, which is pretty good going! I have now begun another, after a couple of false starts, so I will write about that next time.

Happy Reading to you all!

Love and best wishes,

Anne

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