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The Seeker

The Seeker 1

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About this listen

 Winner of the 2015 CWA Endeavour Dagger for Historical Fiction

London, 1654. Oliver Cromwell is at the height of his power and has declared himself Lord Protector. Yet he has many enemies, at home and abroad.

London is a complex web of spies and merchants, priests and soldiers, exiles and assassins. One of the web's most fearsome spiders is Damian Seeker, agent of the Lord Protector. No one knows where Seeker comes from, who his family is, or even his real name. All that is known of him for certain is that he is utterly loyal to Cromwell, and that nothing can be long hidden from him.

In the city, coffee houses are springing up, fashionable places where men may meet to plot and gossip. Suddenly they are ringing with news of a murder. John Winter, hero of Cromwell's all-powerful army, is dead, and the lawyer, Elias Ellingworth, found standing over the bleeding body, clutching a knife.

Yet despite the damning evidence, Seeker is not convinced of Ellingworth's guilt. He will stop at nothing to bring the killer to justice: and Seeker knows better than any man where to search.

(P)2016 WF Howes Ltd©2015 Shona MacLean 17th Century Historical Modern Mystery Thriller & Suspense Fiction England

Critic reviews

The contradictions and compromises of Cromwell's Proctectorate are rather brilliantly woven into the thrilling plot . . . If her next outing is as riveting as this one, she could challenge CJ Sansoms' Shardlake for dominion of the crowded historical crime niche.
All stars
Most relevant
The Seeker begins with Nicholas Camm's narration setting the perfect tone as Shona MacLean's grim and tense 1650s London and its inhabitants are brought to life by the text. He gives our lead, Damian Seeker just the right sense of underlying calm and omnipresent threat. Taken with the text the experience of this audiobook is one of well-researched authenticity and complex plotting. The slight downside is that with a plot that isn't the fastest paced you'll ever read and the quietly deliberate narration I did find a slightly languid feel to the production at times.

The setting is a fairly unusual one; Cromwell's Commonwealth was a strange and brief period in our history. This story shows maturity in that we don't get the usual approach of making one of the sides the "good" side. In MacLean's telling we see a terribly divided land with a populace that are scared, confused and angry. Neither Parliament nor King deserving of any great plaudits. Given that my personal younger history involved some very enjoyable time in the Sealed Knot's Eastern Association within the Middlesex Trayned Bandes I'm delighted she has avoided the usual cliches of glorified Royalists and nasty dull Roundheads.

Attention is required at the start as the various characters are introduced. It did feel a little disjointed early on but once Damian Seeker gets into his considerable stride in the atmospheric London surroundings things pick up and a very satisfying mystery thriller unfolds even if it does rely a little on coincidence. Seeker proves to be a character of significant nuance and depth while retaining an aura of mystery. Taken as a whole this is a very enjoyable first book to the series with plenty of scope for further development.

A Dark-Cloaked Figure

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I loved it! Brilliantly written with many twists and turns it kept me guessing until the end. Nicholas Camm voice is hypnotic and draws you into the story. At no point did I have to guess who was speaking. I can't wait for the next one.

Fabulous

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Is there anything you would change about this book?

No, great story, interesting characters - a dark and troubled time in British history, ripe for storytelling.

What did you like best about this story?

Plot and character development. I hope it'll make for a great series of books.

What didn’t you like about Nicholas Camm’s performance?

Awful. And I was so looking forward to the audible version of this book and its completely flat! He seems to speak in one breathy monotone which makes it incredibly dull. His character voices were also very limited (more breathy monotones).

Was The Seeker worth the listening time?

Sadly no, read the book instead.

Any additional comments?

Please change the narrator for the sequel!!

Great Story. Poor Performance.

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The story is engaging and if I had read the book I think I would of enjoyed it more.
The narrators voice and monotone spoilt the story unfortunately.

Let down by performance

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but the narrator has a monotonous drone and makes no effort to differentiate the voices of the characters.

excellent on historical detail,

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