I like how Robert Harris weaves the different strands of the story together. What makes this 5 stars is how I ended up feeling sympathetic towards the two Colonels by the end of the book. The way the story unfolds is really well done.

This is the sort of book I wish I could have read when doing history at school. It brings this period to life, using real people, times and places in amongst fictional dialogues. It tells the story of the hunt for 2 ‘regicides’, Colonel Ned Whalley and his son in law Colonel Will Goffe, tracked by a zealot, Richard Naylor, who makes it his life’s work to track down all the men who signed King Charles I death warrant, but particularly Whalley and Goffe, who he has more cause to blame than just a Kings death. It shows the politics and religions of the time, fledgling America and the brutality of life both there and in Great Britain. An excellent read, so well researched and written. Highly recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

It's 1660 and Charles II has been restored to the throne of England. The regicides, those that signed his father's death warrant, are either dead or identified but two have escaped to the colonies in America.

Colonels Whalley and Goffe have fled there and are soon to be followed by Richard Naylor who is determined to find them and bring them back.

This story spans 20 years of cat and mouse against a background of the early American colonies and Restoration England

Robert Harris has the talent to wind fiction with known facts to produce a great tale!

Thank you to Netgalley and Hutchinson Heinrmann Publishing for the chance to review this book.

Another ripping yarn by Harris based on historical events, this time after the English Civil War and the hunt for the “regicides” who signed the death warrant of Charles I.
The detail about the events is extraordinary and the author does a great job in creating a thriller about one man’s obsession with capturing two men on the run in America.
Thanks to Random House and Netgalley for an ARC in return for an honest review.

Based on fact yet written with fiction. It was a really good read. You can tell that hours of research have gone into this one. Would definitely recommend if you like historical

A brilliant book which I couldn't put down. Robert Harris brings the period to life, with very credible characters, and I was fascinated to learn about the hunt for the regicides, which I knew nothing about. I would thoroughly recommend this book.

This is an outstanding book, exceptionally well researched, although written as a novel contains all factual information on the adventures of two ex soldiers running for their lives. You will enjoy this book on several levels. Mr Harris demonstrates his full range of skills bringing together several plot lines into one cohesive story. As always his character development is superb, his writing style outstanding. I don’t want to say too much, this book was a revelation to me as I knew nothing on this subject, fascinating stuff. I highly recommend this book to you or as a gift, it’s just a wonderful read.

This book is based on true fact although a work of fiction.
The book is about the reign of Charles 1 and Oliver Cromwell. I do like an historical novel I must say and this one hits the spot.
After Charles 1 is murdered and Cromwell dead the story continues with Richard Naylors' obsession with finding the Regicides. Most are recaptured and hung drawn and quartered, as was the favoured way of dealing with killers at that time.
The story goes on with two of the escapees, Will Goffe and his father-in-law Ned Whalley, who make it to America and their continued flit from one place to another across New England.
Richard, however never gives up.
An almost unbelievable life they live for the rest of their lives with the help of the religious zealots the Puritans.

A true and skilled blending of historical fact and fiction. Robert Harris is at his best in this telling of the hunt for those men who signed Charles 1's death warrant - the regicides, particularly Whalley and Goffe. Naylor - the fictional 'hunter' - becomes obsessed, both professionally and personally. This leads him to the Puritan settlements in New England. The novel alternates between the viewpoints of the regicides and the hunter. It is well-researched, and the fictional parts are more than plausible.

Can't recommend this highly enough.

With thanks to NetGalley and Random House for an ARC.

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris has as its backdrop a series of real events around which he has crafted a fiction. Out of this he weaves a dramatic and thrilling tale, superbly researched, wonderfully realised and which feels extremely modern despite being set in the aftermath of the English Civil War in the seventeenth century. This is a chase thriller played out over continents and years, and is never less than propulsive.

The plot is simple: two men, part of a larger group responsible for regicide, are pursued across New England by a hunter. The latter figure is fictional, though as Harris makes clear in his introduction such a man must have existed. There are good sides and bad sides to both parties in this novel, shades of grey that make it all the more thrilling.

This is Harris' best book in ages - and it will delight his many fans and will certainly bring him new readers. It is highly recommended.

A glimpse into the history of events which brought King Charles I to his execution and the Roundheads/Levellers who effected it. Albeit a novel, this is a detailed account and indicates the perils of the existence of Cavaliers and Roundheads in the aftermath of the Civil War. The descriptions of life and religion in Connecticut and Massachusetts are fascinating. I applaud the ending.

A master of historical fiction delivers another triumph.

In 1649, Charles I was found guilty of treason, having tried to raise an army against the Parliamentarians. 59 men, later known as the Regicides, signed his death warrant and he was summarily beheaded. In 1660, Charles II restored the monarchy and plans were laid to seek out and punish the regicides. Under the provisions of the Act of Oblivion, they were found guilty in absentia: some were pardoned, but other fled to safety. In particular, two, Colonel Edward Whalley and his son-in-law, Colonel William Goffe, crossed the Atlantic to America. This is fact and Robert Harris nicely encapsulates it all within the first two chapters of his book, named after the Act.

What Harris has now done is to imagine that those two fugitives were followed by someone intent on tracking them down and bringing them to justice. Richard Nayler did not exist, although Harris assumes someone like him certainly did. These three form the central thrust of the book, and are marvellous.

The book is essentially a chase across young America and then Europe. As the fugitives move slowly from community to community, they encounter friends and enemies, sometimes hiding, sometimes living in plain sight. As they do so, we learn more about each of the three main protagonists - their histories, their fears and hopes, and their motivations.

The blending of fact and fiction is seamless, and the author does a tremendous job of painting the young America and those who landed there. Neither does he neglect the events and people of England whose actions led to the point of the book. We are reminded that this turbulent period in history was dominated by politics and religion, and it forms a powerful backdrop to the entire story.

This is Harris' finest book in ages, rousing, thought-provoking and immaculately researched, as you'd expect. It's a long book, but every pages oozes class. Fans will be delighted, new readers amazed. Highly recommended.

As a reader with a particular interest in The English Civil War, I wanted to read Act of Oblivion since I had first heard about it. And so my thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this novel. It did not disappoint. The list of resources used to underpin the characters and narrative is impressive. Act of Oblivion is pacy, characterful; contains vivid succinct descriptions and owns a thrilling narrative inspired by the passing of The Act of Oblivion which was designed to track down and execute in the most grisly manner the signatories of Charles I’s Death Warrant. ( I have seen a copy of it myself). They could give themselves up in return for mercy. None was given.

The novel’s three protagonists, Colonel Whalley, William Coffe ( signatories) and Richard Naylor ( employed by Chancellor Hyde to track them down), are characters, so sharply depicted on a physical and emotional level, they felt as living entities walking into my study. The fates of other signatories by the way are described in horrific, graphic detail during the course of the story. However, Whalley and Coffe, his son in law escape to America’s emerging colonies, Puritan communities, which help them survive. Richard Naylor crosses the Atlantic to search for them. The fugitives keep moving from community to community even hiding out for months in the open., a favourite section of the escape and pursuit story drive that’s reminded me momentarily of ‘Last of the Mohicans’ set during the following century. Each roller coaster section describing the colonels’ escapes makes for thrilling and heart-thumping pacy reading. The wonderful portrait Robert Harris gives Naylor, his almost poignant motivation and his determination, his journeying in pursuit of his quarries, as well as his personal dilemmas make for fascinating characterisation. The relationship between him and his quarry is a masterful bit of motivational plotting. Of course the story is inspired by a real story. Good novels contain characters whose emotional journeys a reader wishes to follow and these three protagonists as well as a colourful gallery of support characters more than meet this expectation. Act of Oblivion is a brilliantly plotted and executed novel that colours History with light and shade , lending emotion to its engrossing characters, permitting Historical entities to leap from the page and relive in a way non fiction never can achieve.

Indeed, Harris has a strong understanding of the mindsets governing actions- the struggles and successes, for example that were experienced by societies striving to survive within hostile environments, taming these hostile places and establishing thriving Puritan settlements and towns, all inspired by scripture. I was impressed by Harris’s succinct, vivid landscape depictions as his characters perceived them, including the passing of seasons.

At times a reader is plunged back into memories but this never slows the pace. Rather, we jump back into an understanding of perspectives on the Civil War; to the aftermath; to the King’s execution ( beautifully told) and the Commonwealth Era and of course the Restoration with both plague and fire years. I liked the device used by the author to give a strong sense of Oliver Cromwell. It is an extremely rich novel filled with many revealing narrative treasures. We meet Whaley’s daughter Frances too and are drawn into Restoration London and Puritan struggles through her character’s lens. No spoilers. She has a significant role.

It’s impossible to praise Act of Oblivion enough. The book has a cracking narrative , wonderful characters, great locations and , importantly, a very satisfying ending. It’s a moving human story and ranks amongst Harris’s best novels. It’s yet another astonishing book worthy of film and I have no doubt this book will top best seller lists on publication.

Act of Oblivion is a historical novel, built on reliable sources, but Robert Harris wears his research lightly. It is a compelling thriller and a genuine page-turner.

This epic tale has at its heart a journey that encompasses London, America, Holland, Switzerland and France. It has all the thrill of the chase and is told from two opposed narrative points of view: the hunters and the hunted. The first part sketches the context and sets up the chase that becomes the focus in America. It is a chase that twists and turns. The trail moves to Europe and back to America. It builds to a dramatic climax with a twist in the final scenes.

Richard Nayler is an intriguing creation. He is one of the few characters not sourced in history but he easily could have been because he fits the story perfectly. He has a very personal reason to hunt down the two men he chases and he is running from demons of his own.

Like all great historical novels, Act of Oblivion inspires interest in the events of the story. It covers an extraordinary period from the restoration of the King in 1660 to the Great Plague in 1665 and the Great Fire of London in 1666. And for the Puritans the beginning of 1667 wasn’t supposed to happen. It will leave readers who didn’t think they were interested in history doing some unexpected research.

Harris’s recreation of the seventeenth century is one of the most memorable features of the book. This is both a political and a religious age. Ruthlessness sits alongside piety. The behaviour of the leaders triggers a response amongst the people and the will of the people makes itself felt too. We see this reflected in London especially, but also in New England in the American scenes. Harris captures the day to day detail that makes the world as real as our own.

In the end, the characters are motivated as much by faith as by facts. They are not so much defeated by each other as by themselves. Their fates come to echo the past rather than improve on it. It is the perfect blend of history and imagination.

Wow, this guy knows how to tell a story! Robert Harris is a master of his craft whatever genre he writes about. This is a wonderful story in the style of "The Fugitive" with a relentless pursuer determined to get his men.

Richard Nayler is committed, determined and totally single minded - a true zealot , who is determined to bring to justice all 59 signatories of the death warrant of Charles 1. His prime targets, Colonel Edward Whalley and his son-in-law, Colonel William Goffe have fled to America where they are hidden by Puritan sympathisers.

This is not merely a story of a pursuit, but also one about the entire conflict and the reasons behind the struggle between royalists and puritans. There is zealotry and cruelty on both sides and the book is superbly researched as well as plotted.

This is a breathless read and a book not to be missed.

Highly recommended.