Jonas Flynt is world-weary adventurer who has lived and worked on both sides of the law. It is 1715 and Flynt is commissioned to retrieve a document believed to be the will of the late Queen Anne that could be used to foment rebellion against King George in favour of her half-brother, James. The search leads him from London to his long-lost home town of Edinburgh and into a number of scrapes.

The sense of historical place and time is very well expressed. Flynt himself is an excellent character with plenty of depth, back-story and moral ambiguity. He seems very real, although perhaps a little too heroic.

The book suffers with two faults that reduced my rating. This is the first in a proposed series, so we are introduced to several characters (too many!) who will become long-running antagonists for Flynt. This also means there are too many loose ends, all to be picked up in later volumes, leaving an unsatisfying lack of a natural end to the storyline.

Te second fault is that the book plays too hard to meet modern liberal sensibilities. Every other character seems to be black (although they never act in any way that reflects their background). All rich people are devils and mostly English. There is a Stop The War character. There are other examples. I found all this to be a little wearing and crudely anachronistic.

I did enjoy this book, would recommend it to others, and I look forward to reading the volumes to come. ( )

1715 Did the late Queen Anne leave a Will naming her half-brother, Catholic James Stuart, her heir to the Kingdom. Colonel Charters assigns one of his Company of Rogues, Jonas Flynt, to find the document. But he is not the only one searching.
A well-written fast paced historical thriller and mystery with its cast of likeable and interesting characters. A good start to this new series. ( )