Historically very interesting but otherwise a bit too long and tedious. And the characters didn’t really come to life. ( )

A cracking good pageturner showing the best of Robert Harris's style. The tension mounts as the hunting down and execution of the killers of Charles I continues apace. A chase across New England ensues - the descriptive prose is so good you can smell the place. ( )

No a blockbuster thriller but a beautifully crafted, exquisitely paced historical recreation - packed with believable period detail, redolent of time and place. A joy to read. ( )

Robert Harris has consistently shown his skill at recreating widely differing historical periods, from ancient Rome to WWII England to Russia during Yeltsin's regime. In Act of Oblivion, he tries a new century, the late 1600s after the death of Cromwell and Charles II's ascent to the throne. As part of the deal he made to return to power, Charles has agreed to forgive those who launched the civil war, except for the 50+ men who signed his father's death warrant or presided over the trial.
A handful are taken into custody and some others surrender, hoping the king will grant them pardons. Instead, they all end up hanged, then drawn and quartered with their heads on pikes at the entrances to London.
While several of the regicides escape to Europe, two head for Colonial New England and Harris' story goes back and forth between their attempts to avoid detection in America and the authorities efforts to track them down by locating their families in London.
Harris captures the infighting and plotting in the royal court amidst a city wracked by plague and fire. But he does an even better job imagining life in Boston, Hartford and New Haven in the 1690s, where small settlements, most of them led by Puritan religious fanatics, struggle to carve out a lonely existence in the vast north American forest.
The plot wanders at times. The regicides spend years in hiding and it is hard to keep up the tension over that period of time.
But Harris is aiming for a more serious theme. Charles and his brother, the Duke of York, are corrupt, frivolous and cruel, while the Puritans are always guided by their belief that God is guiding their actions and their success or failure must reflect his approval or disapproval of them.
A surprisingly large number of folks are willing to shelter the fugitives, at least so long as there are no serious consequences for doing so. But when the authorities draw near, self preservation out-ranks belief and the regicides are told to move on.
One of the regicides is a relative of Cromwell and one of his top generals, and he reminisces regularly about the high and low points of the revolution. After much thought, his faith has been challenged. Of Cromwell, he muses, "One could never be too sure with Oliver. Ambition and godliness, self-interest and the higher cause, the base metal entwined with he gold.”
Act of Oblivion is not my favorite Harris book. Fatherland and Archangel have tighter story lines and more agreeable heroes. But I admire his recreation of a time in American history that is rarely written about, and I have a much better understanding of the English civil war after reading it. ( )

This is historical fiction but a pretty accurate retelling of the lives of two of the regicides of Charles I, Ned Whalley and Will Goffe. Ned was the cousin of Oliver Cromwell, and Will, his son-in-law, married to daughter Frances. When Charles II was returned as King, he vowed to hunt down the 59 men who signed his father's death warrant, despite pardoning all others (this was the Act of Oblivion). Ned and Will escaped to America, hoping to find refuge among the Puritans there.
Judges Cave on West Rock in New Haven is one of the places where the two men hid as they were hunted by the king's men and bounty hunters. My own genealogy is intertwined with these two men, and I've retraced some of their footprints, so I found this book fascinating. Mr. Harris is an excellent writer and weaves an excellent tale of early New England. The Reverand John Davenport hosted them for a while (he was a founder of New Haven and a strict theologian, running the Colony of New Haven by Mosaic Law - he also was instrumental in the trial of Margaret Bailey, a relative and accused of witchcraft and exiled to Westchester county with her husband, though she was more of a gossip). George Downing is another relative who fought on the side of the Puritans in the Civil War, then switched sides and betrayed many of the regicides to their deaths of hanging, drawn, and quartering.
It is known that Ned Whalley had a stroke and died of old age, but Will Goffe's later life is unknown after he saved the town of Hadley from an Indian attack. I liked the ending that Mr. Harris came up with. It's a terrific read if one is interested in the English Civil War and early New England, and I highly recommend it. ( )