"The Bleeding Land" - a review...

I really, really, don't need a book about the English Civil War quite as good a this...     That next project is so close.....

Giles Kristian is probably better known for his Viking books, but this is the first in a new series set in the English Civil War, and about the Rivers family.

Being landed gentry, tradition dictates that their allegiance is to the King, and indeed the family heads (Sir Francis) loyalty is exactly that, though there is more than a hint of wanting to protect his family about the decision, as there family home is deep within an area that has Parliamentary leanings...

The youngest son (Tom) is in love with the daughter of the local minister who is arrested on charges of papacy, Sir Francis is unable, or rather unwilling, to help in the matter and the local magistrate has him hanged, but not before he has a 'casting couch' moment with the daughter who is desperate to save him... she hangs herself, and when Tom finds out what has happened he swears vengeance on the magistrate, and unable to forgive his father for his lack of action, leaves home and eventualy ends up in London, and then in the nascent Parliamentary army..

Edmund, the eldest of Sir Francis' sons, goes with his father to the raising of the King's Standard at Nottingham, and then serves (with distinction) at Powick Bridge where he is noticed, and then promoted into Rupert's cavalry regiment.

The family is destined to meet at Edgehill, on opposite sides, and with disastrous consequences.....   but not before Lady Rivers has to defend her family home from attack by local Parliamentary forces

What an absolute cracker, Steve the Wargamer rates this as 8 out of 10, the second volume is already ordered for  my Kindle (which just for once is cheaper than the paper book!)....