The second novel of the visceral Divided Kingdom series sees the action turn westwards to Bristol, where a Royalist army is determined to wrest the city from the forces of Parliament.

Once again, the story revolves around the vicious enmity of the Reeve brothers: carefree and dissolute Ralph and embittered and fanatical Francis. Also caught up in the conflict are Moussa Dansocko, an African slave accused of sorcery, Kendall Tremain, Cornish fisherman and tinner, Abel Cowans, a former naval gunner from Newcastle and others, all with their own diverse reasons for siding with one cause or the other in England's bloody civil war.

'Charles Cordell, a former soldier, writes with a bravura confidence' -The Times

About the Author

Charles Cordell has been a career soldier and diplomat on the ground in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa. He has seen humanity at its best, its worst and its most desperate. His novels draw both on time spent on the fraying margins of civilisation and studies of the great political and religious crises of 17th century Europe. The Keys of Hell and Death is the second of his novels in the Divided Kingdom series, which chronicles Britain's civil wars between 1642 and 1653.

Reviews

'Charles Cordell, a former soldier, writes with a bravura confidence.'

* The Times *

'Heart-pounding action, heart-breaking loss as a nation tears itself apart. Day by agonising day, yard by bloody yard, men stand shoulder to shoulder to fight and die for their cause. Knife-sharp scholarly knowledge combined with the skill of a natural storyteller. Not to be missed.'

-- David Gilman, author of Master of War and The Englishman series

'I have been waiting for this second novel and am not disappointed. Once more Charles Cordell evokes the experience of the Civil War soldier more vividly than ever before and gives us characters whom we are eager to follow.'

-- Prof Ronald Hutton CBE

'Cordell plunges you into the fast-flowing battlefields of 1643, full of fear, tension and the relief of surviving. He brilliantly captures the plight of soldiers in realistic detail in and around battle.'

-- Lt Gen Richard Nugee CB, CVO, CBE

'Immerses you in the smoke, blood, and smell of burnt powder and death. It's a remarkable and unique talent for any author to hold his reader transfixed in a book that simply cannot be put down.'

-- Jeremy Ravenshaw Fowler, Adjutant General of the Sealed Knot Society.



Book Information
ISBN 9781910183335
Author Charles Cordell
Format Paperback
Imprint Myrmidon Books Ltd
Publisher Myrmidon Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 360g
Dimensions(mm) 195mm * 128mm * 29mm