Mini Reviews

The Nightingale Gallery by Paul Harding

Paul Harding manages to make the filth, smells, decay and disease very believable and real. It is a dark and dreary place where these people live and you can feel it. The mystery is good but nothing spectacular. The characters are flawed and gritty but, despite the surroundings and everything else, manage to not be so miserable that you don’t want to read about them. The relationship between the two main characters can even be fun at times and the characters themselves, likeable.



The King's Rogue by Dennis Max Cornelius Woodruffe-Peacock

The book is about Colonel Thomas Blood, who murders, kidnaps and steals his way through England in the 1600’s. Although Blood is a real historical figure I don’t know how much of this book can be relied on as fact. I have read (on the internet) some accounts of his life and many of the incidents seem to have happened although not quite the way they are depicted in the book. Whether it is historically accurate or not the book is still a fun adventure. Reading this book is a lot like reading an old Errol Flynn movie. There is political intrigue, swashbuckling, duels, adventure and of course our hero and his lady love. It’s a fun, fast read with a lot of action and some interesting characters.