The Leviathan
This book starts with some beautiful writing and has a great sense of place and time. We are at the end of 1643, and Thomas Treadwater is back home in Norfolk, on leave from his Roundhead regiment. Thomas has been summoned by his sister’s worrying account of witchcraft in the family home. His father is already dangerously ill. Matters rapidly deteriorate.
This author is concerned, like Thomas Hobbes who wrote his treatise Leviathan during the Civil War, with exploring how much chaos people can take before relationships break down and an absolutist ruler must take over. But this theme is tackled here not through philosophy but via a gripping, Gothic plot with unexpected twists. And the leviathan of Andrews’ title is not metaphorical but eventually appears, a seaborne bringer of evil. I was impressed with the male first-person voice—the best I have found recently from a female writer.
However, despite the generally sure tone, there are some historical mistakes. John Milton the poet—a major character in the story—at this date certainly did not yet live in Chalfont St Giles (the house we now know as Milton’s Cottage). No-one yet would have spoken of ‘The Long Parliament’, nor have said ‘The army under Cromwell.’
As the book progressed, I found that the pace slowed, and some of the more interesting characters were killed off or otherwise disappeared. The latter half is written with a small cast and is quite intense, though I did feel that in terms of sheer plot, the suspense would have benefitted without the framing structure scenes where Thomas looks back from the standpoint of 60 years on.
Still, this is a spellbinding tale, with memorable images and much to enjoy. Warmly recommended.
