{"id":7043463,"date":"2026-08-22T01:55:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T01:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/entertainment\/books\/review-rags-of-time-by-michael-ward\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T01:55:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T01:55:19","slug":"review-rags-of-time-by-michael-ward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7043463","title":{"rendered":"REVIEW: \u2018Rags of Time\u2019 by Michael Ward"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u2018Sir Joseph Venell considered his sin, and smiled.\u2019<\/h2>\n

Unfortunately for Sir Joseph, his smile is swiftly replaced by a grimace of fear as he is brutally attacked by an invisible adversary and left for dead in his own field.<\/p>\n

What has happened to Sir Joseph? Why do the investigators believe Thomas Tallant, a spice merchant newly returned from India, is involved? When Sir Joseph\u2019s business partner dies in an accident while drinking and dining on his parents\u2019 property, the investigators become convinced that Thomas must be responsible. Can his new friend, gambler and logician Elizabeth Seymour, help him escape the noose?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s it about?<\/h3>\n

Life in London in 1639\/40 as civil war approaches and the mystery of who is conspiring against Thomas \u2013 and who he can trust.<\/p>\n

The politics of the era are, inevitably, a crucial element of the plot, but Tallant\u2019s focus is the impact of politics on his business \u2013 and the shadow of arrest hanging over him.<\/p>\n

Solving the mystery of the deaths is put on hold while a more pressing issue develops involving seditious pamphlets and a printing press, with Thomas consistently his worst enemy \u2013 which leads him to make several new enemies!<\/p>\n

What\u2019s it like?<\/h3>\n

\u2018Rags of Time\u2019 gives an interesting insight into some of the issues of the period and is a slow burn mystery with a largely satisfactory resolution (other than the perennial issue in any tale of this kind, where there is at least one moment when the ultimate villain should shoot to kill and, bizarrely, doesn\u2019t, leaving the hero to fight again another day).<\/p>\n

I was a little bit frustrated at times by the way Ward uses Thomas\u2019 father to deliver chunks of historical background; this felt false to me. Similarly, I was a bit shaken out of the narrative by a few abrupt slips into the first person, present tense. These few lurches could easily have been softened by placing them in italics to isolate them as Thomas\u2019 thoughts; leaving them undifferentiated from the third person narration made those moments jarring to me.<\/p>\n

I quite liked the final resolution as it explains a few aspects that didn\u2019t make sense and, I think, perfectly captures a certain class of individual\u2019s sense of entitlement. I was also relieved that the novel didn\u2019t stray into the supernatural, as the opening chapter did seem to open up the potential for this kind of story, until the practical investigator explained his theory about what had happened.<\/p>\n

Final thoughts<\/h3>\n

This was an enjoyable read which gave me a different perspective on the build up to the English Civil War than Robert Harris\u2019 \u2018Act of Oblivion\u2019<\/a>, which I also read recently. This is the start of a series featuring Thomas Tallant and the ending begins to set up ideas that I assume will be relevant to the second book, \u2018The Wrecking Storm\u2019. Hopefully the second book features more Elizabeth Seymour, whose brains could surely keep Thomas from getting into quite as much trouble as he does here!<\/p>\n

\u2018Rags of Time\u2019,
Michael Ward,
2025, Burnaby Press, paperback<\/h6>\n
Many thanks to the author for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.<\/h5>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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