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    The Last Protector
    The Last Protector
    The Last Protector
    Audiobook12 hours

    The Last Protector

    Written by Andrew Taylor

    Narrated by Leighton Pugh

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    From the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ashes of London comes the next book in the phenomenally successful series following James Marwood and Cat Lovett.

    A dangerous secret lies beneath Whitehall Palace…
     
    Brother against brother. Father against son. Friends turned into enemies. No one in England wants a return to the bloody days of the Civil War. But Oliver Cromwell’s son, Richard, has abandoned his exile and slipped back into England. The consequences could be catastrophic.
     
    James Marwood, a traitor’s son turned government agent, is tasked with uncovering Cromwell’s motives. But his assignment is complicated by his friend – the regicide’s daughter, Cat Lovett – who knew the Cromwells as a child, and who now seems to be hiding a secret of her own about the family.
     
    Both Marwood and Cat know they are putting themselves in great danger. And when they find themselves on a top secret mission in the Palace of Whitehall, they realize they are risking their lives…and could even be sent to the block for treason.

    Praise for Andrew Taylor

    ‘One of the best historical crime writers today’ The Times

    ‘If you like C. J. Sansom, or Hilary Mantel, you’ll love Andrew Taylor’ Peter James

    ‘Effortlessly authentic…gripping…moving and believable. An excellent work’ C. J. Sansom

    ‘This is historical crime fiction at its dazzling best’ Guardian

    ‘One of the best historical novelists around’ Sunday Times

    ‘A breathtakingly ambitious picture of an era’ Financial Times

    ‘A masterclass in writing for the genre’ Ann Cleeves

    ‘Andrew Taylor is one of our finest storytellers' Antonia Hodgson

    ‘Vivid and compelling’ Observer

    ‘A novel filled with intrigue, duplicity, scandal and betrayal, whose author now vies with another master of the genre, C. J. Sansom’ Spectator

    ‘Taylor brings the 17th century to life so vividly that one can almost smell it’ Guardian

    ‘A most artful and delightful book, that will both amuse and chill’ Daily Telegraph

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 2, 2020
    ISBN9780008325541
    The Last Protector
    Author

    Andrew Taylor

    Andrew Taylor is the author of a number of crime novels, including the ground-breaking Roth Trilogy, which was adapted into the acclaimed drama Fallen Angel, and the historical crime novels The Ashes of London, The Silent Boy, and The American Boy, a No.1 Sunday Times bestseller and a 2005 Richard & Judy Book Club Choice. He has won many awards, including the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award (the only author to win it three times) and the CWA’s prestigious Diamond Dagger.

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    Reviews for The Last Protector

    4/5

    34 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I enjoyed the characters and the storyline though it went in a bit long. And characters kept unrealistically popping up from behind doors or screens just to provide an opportunity to inform the reader. I do think that one or two of the plot lines, such as the servant who was enamored with Cat, could have been cut without losing anything. The narrator was winderful.
    • 3/5
      An amazing book and quite slow for my taste. I think ur had to much going on Ferris and Windy useless in my view.
    • 4/5
      This is the fourth book in Taylor’s series of thrillers set in mid-17th century London featuring James Marwood, government agent, and his friend Cat Lovett. In this volume Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver and himself once Lord Protector and ruler of England, has returned from exile and appears to be working with the Duke of Buckingham. Marwood is tasked with discovering their plans and helping to stop any attempt to overthrow King Charles. Marwood and Lovett both become too closely involved with the plotters and, with their own rather dubious backgrounds in the eyes of the government, risk being swept up in the treachery.As always Taylor gets the atmosphere and feel of Restoration London just right, drawing the reader in without giving in to, or ignoring, period language and colour. Marwood and Lovett are an attractive pair with complementary skills and a shared outlook on their place in the world. Other characters, both regular and newly introduced, are well drawn.An exciting thriller set in a colourful and well-drawn world.
    • 4/5
      Another quite decent installment in this series, which I continue to enjoy.
    • 4/5
      Note: There are necessarily spoilers for previous books in this series.This is the fourth novel in this historical crime fiction series set in 1660s London. The first book began in September 1666, during London’s Great Fire. The second book was set eight months later, and the third one shortly thereafter. This one begins in January 1668, eighteen months after the fire. At this time in [actual] history, a duel was fought between the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Duke of Buckingham. Buckingham was having an affair with Shrewsbury’s wife, and the two men were political rivals as well. James Marwood, one of the central characters of the series, is asked to witness the duel surreptitiously by his employer, the historical figure Joseph Williamson, Undersecretary to Lord Arlington, Secretary of State for the South and one of the King’s most powerful ministers. Marwood is noticed, however, by one of the Duke of Buckingham’s men, which puts him in danger, all the more so because one of the duel’s seconds was killed, and Shrewsbury himself suffered a wound. Taylor delves into medical practices of the day to describe the efforts to heal Shrewsbury. At first he was bled by leeches, and then he was treated by dead pigeons, “considered one of the last remedies at a doctor’s disposal.” As Taylor describes the procedure:“Live birds were brought into the sickroom. Their necks were wrung and, while they were still warm, their breasts were slit open and applied to the patient’s skin, usually to the soles of the feet.”[A nice post on the history of using pigeons for cures at this time can be found here. One must be grateful anew for the invention of penicillin.]A parallel plot concerns the other main protagonist, Catherine “Cat” Lovett, now married to Simon Hakesby, a man old enough to be her grandfather, and an architect in the employ of Christopher Wren. Cat is approached by Elizabeth Cromwell, granddaughter of Oliver Cromwell and eldest child of Richard, the last Protector. Richard has returned to London from exile to retrieve a package hidden for him by his late mother, and Elizabeth asked for Cat’s help in getting it. Cat would have declined, but her husband is in thrall of both Elizabeth and her father, and insists that he and Cat will assist them, to their mortal peril, especially when they find out that the Duke of Buckingham was involved in the matter also.The Duke of Buckingham was playing with fire: while he was seen as a valuable ally to King Charles II, he also hedged his bets by showing himself to be a friend to religious dissenters, including those who had traitorously supported the Cromwells.As in the previous books, James and Cat find themselves working together to get themselves out of trouble while avoiding the vengeance of their respective masters. A surprise ending results in a bit of a rapprochement for James and Cat, although they still have a number of rather large misconceptions about each other.Evaluation: The politics of the time can be a bit confusing to follow as all the intrigue and double-dealing that actually happened can make a person dizzy. Nevertheless it is also fascinating, as are the historical details. I especially enjoyed the author’s description of “a violent, mysterious game which involved the possession of an inflated pig’s bladder.” Some things never change….