DEATH AND THE DREADNOUGHT - REVIEW

What’s it about?

London just before WWI, and Henry Delamere agrees to a secret meeting with his friend in the shipyard where Britain’s newest battleship is being built. Upon arrival, he finds his friend dead, and himself the suspect.

On the run from the police for a crime he did not commit, and with assassins on his back too, Henry must find out why his friend had been acting so strangely before his death, and more importantly, why he was murdered.

With the help of his trusty Cornish valet and a burlesque dancer, Henry gets himself further and further into hot water as he struggles to uncover a German plot to steal valuable naval technology.

Some Quotes:

"There I was, a wanted murderer on the run from the police, a conspiracy of unknown assassins, and the restive proletariat of Europe. For reasons that were increasingly elusive to me at that moment, I’d chosen to secrete myself in a set of offices that were under 24-hour police guard. And now, bizarrely, and unless I was much mistaken, someone was trying to break in after me.

Thank God I’d used the privy when I’d had the chance."

"Then I set off, back across London again, in the mild late afternoon. ‘Westward, look, the land is bright,’ as the chappie wrote. But he probably wasn’t talking about Bayswater."

My thoughts

This book is really good fun. The voice of Henry Delamere is so strong, his character so clear, that he is a joy to be around. On many occasions, this novel made me laugh out loud. The characters are distinct, charming, lovable. From Delamere’s sidekick, Quin, as the reliable, dour valet always routing for his master whilst keeping him in check, to Bliss, the straight-talking, voluptuous burlesque dancer who gives as good as she gets, the trio make an unlikely threat to the German spies.

It is a fast paced novel, full of action. Henry is always getting himself into scrapes which he humorously manages to worm his way out of. The dialogue is great, the historical detail is superb, and the plot, if at times slightly far-fetched, is certainly entertaining.

And it has proved equally popular with reviewers on Amazon, earning itself 100% 5 star reviews at the time of this writing.

Who is it for?

Love a lovable rogue who doesn’t quite fit anywhere in society but with his oddball friends?  This is for you.

Like an historical-political conspiracy thriller? Check this out.

Want to have a good laugh and an entertaining read? Death and the Dreadnought might just be your very English cup of tea.

About the author

Robert Wilton is a prize winning author. His first series of books are historical espionage thrillers drawing on the archive of the Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey. He has worked in a number of Government departments, is the co-founder of The Ideas Partnership, and now runs an international human rights mission in Albania.

He likes old books and films, does a bit of gig rowing and poetry translating, and divides his time between Cornwall and the Balkans.

I also had the pleasure of being tutored by him and Manda Scott in November 2018 on an Arvon Historical Fiction Writing course – read all about my experience here.

You can check out all his books here. And keep your eyes peeled for more books in his new series.