Act of Oblivion: The Thrilling new novel from the no. 1 bestseller Robert Harris

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That these easter eggs are meaningless and even befuddling to new readers might make sense in terms of costs and benefits. Accompanied by a gang of angry Scottish mercenaries still smarting over their defeat at the Battle of Dunbar, Nayler bounds across the vast wildernesses of 17th-century America, following the fugitives’ trail through various one-horse towns and locking horns entertainingly with the obstreperous community leaders whose sympathies lie with the English Republicans. But the fellah has a knack for turning staid stories into page turners, im not sure how, but he does. Richard Nayler, Secretary of the regicide committee of The Privy Council in London is tasked with tracking down all of the fugitives, but he has personal reasons to want Whalley and Goffe dead, and he will literally follow them across oceans, prairies, forests and mountains in his pursuit. Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Charles II wants revenge on the men who were responsible for the murder of his father, Charles I.

This is the main advantage of Harris's approach: The story is all about the two sides of a war and the ways people on each side justify their actions. Whalley, Goffe and Nayler are vividly drawn, their decisions and actions consistent with the worldviews he has created for them. Harris hinted at a third, far less obvious, allusion hidden in the novel's title, and, more significantly, at a possible motive for having written the book in the first place. The Civil War is rarely tackled in novels because it's so complicated, but a chase with a man hunting these people down would give me a natural story structure.Robert Harris's latest offering is a gripping piece of historical fiction, a blend of fact and fiction that imagines the turbulent period of history after the Restoration. Whalley is the only reflective character, confronting the possibility (in the memoir, though not to others) that perhaps God had not been on the side of the Parliamentarians. While Act Of Oblivion is primarily a gripping historical thriller, it's impossible to ignore the parallels between post-Civil War England and post-Brexit Britain. They thought they could run the country with Parliamentary committees but it quickly became apparent people needed someone human to focus their attention on.

But their flight gave me a way of writing not only about the English Civil War but also about the beginnings of America. It enables you to tell stories about characters against a realistic backdrop, and readers' sympathies are engaged much more than in a work of non-fiction or historical scholarship. This is by far Harris's best book since An Officer and a Spy, which dealt with another great national division: the Dreyfus case. Most of these are either already dead or are quickly caught and brought to justice, but several – including Whalley and Goffe – have disappeared, seemingly without trace. I have no doubt Harris's enthralling novel will be a success, it covers such a fascinating period of English history, it is very well written with a surprising twist at the end.It's not like the end of a football match where the referee blows the whistle and everyone leaves the field and it's all over forever. Set in 1660, after eleven years of catastrophic Civil War in England, the story finds Colonel Edward Whalley and his son-in-law Colonel William Goffe fugitives from justice.

The problem is that this is the majority of the novel because there isn’t a great deal to the story itself. This stands apart and besides the primes on both sides here and doesn't exist for the "eyes" of the true believer intensity except in some Scripture asides or a page here or there.

Its title comes from the clever legislation passed by parliament in 1660 that pardoned most of those who took arms against the Crown during the English Civil War, yet unleashed retribution against 59 regicides - the men who had signed the royal death warrant or sat in judgment on the King.

The novel’s narrative structure moves to and fro between them, ultimately leading to a brisk if slightly implausible conclusion. Robert Harris is one of my favourite authors, so a new book by him is always something to look forward to.Like in An Officer and a Spy, Robert Harris has taken a little known historical episode and written a lengthy novel about it - and, like that other novel, Act of Oblivion is unfortunately really boring. In 2006, Harris followed up on Pompeii with another Roman-era work, Imperium, the first novel in a trilogy centred on the life of the great Roman orator and lawyer Marcus Tullius Cicero. When the tale’s perspective shifts to their pursuer, you sympathize with him, feel his pain and anger, and hope that he will be successful in his hunt.