Act of Oblivion

Author Robert Harris
Narrator Tim McInnerny
Publisher Random House
Publish Date 1 September 2022
Run Time 15 hours and 43 minutes
Format Audio
Genre Historical crime and mysteries, Thriller / suspense fiction.

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What to expect

Brought to you by Penguin.

'From what is it they flee?'
He took a while to reply. By the time he spoke the men had gone inside. He said quietly, 'They killed the King.'

1660, General Edward Whalley and Colonel William Goffe, father- and son-in-law, cross the Atlantic. They are on the run and wanted for the murder of Charles I. Under the provisions of the Act of Oblivion, they have been found guilty in absentia of high treason.

In London, Richard Nayler, secretary of the regicide committee of the Privy Council, is tasked with tracking down the fugitives. He'll stop at nothing until the two men are brought to justice. A reward of £100 hangs over their heads - for their capture, dead or alive.

ACT OF OBLIVION is an epic journey across continents, and a chase like no other. It is the thrilling new novel by Robert Harris.

© Robert Harris 2022 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

Critics Review

One of Harris’s most compellingly paced to date . . . it is his best since Fatherland

Sunday Times

Act of Oblivion is a belter of a thriller. It will be compulsive reading for those who loved An Officer and a Spy, Harris’s book about the Dreyfus affair. Like that novel, the research is immaculate. A chewy, morally murky slice of history is made into a thriller that twists and surprises. The characters are strong and we care about their predicament. The story stretches over continents and years, but the suspense feels as taut as if the three main characters were locked in a room with a gun.

The Times

Act of Oblivion is a fine novel about a divided nation, about invisible wounds that heal slower than visible ones . . . it feels like an important book for our particular historical moment, one that shows the power of forgiveness and the intolerable burden of long-held grudges

Observer

Harris’s books are always supremely readable – he has practically trademarked the term ‘master storyteller’

Observer

[Harris] writes with a skill and ingenuity that few other novelists can match

Financial Times

A lightning-quick thriller, the tension cranked right up throughout, and Harris’ 17th century New England is so real you can almost smell it

Tim Weaver, author of BLACKBIRD

Harris (Munich) again turns a historical event into a canny page-turner. . . Harris humanizes the hunter and the hunted, and brings to life an obscure chapter in colonial American history. This further burnishes Harris’s reputation as a talented author of historical suspense

Publishers Weekly

Gripping . . . Thoroughly enjoyable. . . . [This} deeply researched story is the author’s brilliant reimagining of real historical events, with sympathetic characters and a compelling plot

Kirkus Reviews

Harris’s cleverness, judgment and eye for detail are second to none

Sunday Times

The master of the intelligent thriller

Daily Telegraph

User Reviews

Book 4.0

Narration 5.0

4.0

5.0

An absorbing retelling of the story of the late 17th century hunt across Europe and New England for the regicides who signed Charles 1st death warrant in 1649. Robert Harris manages to add flesh to the key characters and paints a vivid picture of their motivations during the Civil war period. The story focuses on the escape to Puritan New England of two regicides and manages to keep the reader / listener intrigued about their fate right to the end. The excellent narration also adds to this very enjoyable audiobook

Bolbob 03/11/2022

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