The Drowned City: Daniel Pursglove 1 (Daniel Pursglove, #1)

by K. J. Maitland

Nathan Turner (Narrator)

'This gripping thriller shows what a wonderful storyteller Maitland is' THE TIMES

'A dark and enthralling historical novel with a powerful narrative. The mysterious Daniel Pursglove has all the qualifications for a memorable series hero' ANDREW TAYLOR

'A colourful, compelling novel which makes a fine opening to a promised series' SUNDAY TIMES

'Devilishly good' DAILY MAIL

Gunpowder and treason changed England forever. But the tides are turning and revenge runs deep in this compelling historical thriller for fans of C.J. Sansom, Andrew Taylor's Ashes of London, Kate Mosse and Blood & Sugar.

1606. A year to the day that men were executed for conspiring to blow up Parliament, a towering wave devastates the Bristol Channel. Some proclaim God's vengeance. Others seek to take advantage.

In London, Daniel Pursglove lies in prison waiting to die. But Charles FitzAlan, close adviser to King James I, has a job in mind that will free a man of Daniel's skill from the horrors of Newgate. If he succeeds.

For Bristol is a hotbed of Catholic spies, and where better for the lone conspirator who evaded arrest, one Spero Pettingar, to gather allies than in the chaos of a drowned city? Daniel journeys there to investigate FitzAlan's lead, but soon finds himself at the heart of a dark Jesuit conspiracy - and in pursuit of a killer.

'Skilfully interweaves the threads of natural catastrophe, murder, conspiracy and espionage that go right to the heart of the Jacobean court' TRACY BORMAN

'Spies, thieves, murderers and King James I? Brilliant' CONN IGGULDEN

'There are few authors who can bring the past to life so compellingly - it was a genuine treat to follow Pursglove into the devastated streets of Bristol where shadows and menace lurk round almost every corner... Brilliant writing and more importantly, riveting reading' SIMON SCARROW

'The intrigues of Jacobean court politics simmer beneath the surface in this gripping and masterful crime novel... Maitland's post-flood Bristol is an apocalyptic world, convincingly anchored in its period, while eerily echoing the devastation of more recent natural disasters. I can't wait for more!' KATHERINE CLEMENTS

'Beautifully written with a dark heart, Maitland knows how to pull you deep into the early Jacobean period' RHIANNON WARD

• ISBN10: 1472235940
• ISBN13: 9781472235947
• Publish Date: 1 April 2021
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 9 December 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Headline Publishing Group
• Imprint: Headline Review
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 448
• Language: English

Reviews

[pamela]

I had to DNF this at about 15%, so I won't be reviewing this. It's not at all a bad book, and Maitland's prose is beautiful, but the meandering slow tone is just not something I'm in the right headspace for.

To put it into perspective: this is a single sentence that appears on page 2 of the novel!

"The frost on the roofs of the cottages glittered in the sunshine and thin spirals of lavender-grey smoke rose from dozens of hearth fires as women began to bake the noonday’s bread and sweep the dust from their floors, while their menfolk, rags wound about their hands, stirred vats of boiling tar or sawed planks for new boats, some standing in deep pits so that only the tops of their heads showed above the ground, blizzards of sawdust already covering their greasy coifs."

That isn't even the only example of those kinds of run-on sentences. It's a stylistic choice, but one that I definitely feel a reader needs to be in the right frame of mind for. I've no doubt this would be a rewarding read, but only for someone with the time and mental stillness to really commit to it.