Genre: Mystery / Thriller
Publisher: Britannia Publications
Publication Date: 8th Feb 2015
Pages: 353
MY REVIEW:
A copy of The Britannia
Contagion was sent to Confessions of a Reviewer by the author Peter C Middleton
in exchange for an honest review. This is said review.
If you haven’t
already heard of Peter C Middleton or read any of his books, why the hell not?
I have previously reviewed Book One of this series, The Britannia Conspiracy,
here. If you haven’t already read Book One, I would recommend picking it up
before tackling this one. It is not a necessity as this one stands up pretty
well as a story of its own but it is better when you are familiar with the
characters.
Someone has
released the Bubonic Plague on London. Again. The modern day plague has been
genetically modified and is much more deadly. Anyone who contracts it,
initially develops an insatiable thirst for human blood. Within eight hours
they will be dead.
The people who
have released it have kidnapped, and infected the Prime Ministers daughter,
Skye. Alexander Ackerman and his team of “Guardians” must track down the people
responsible and find the cure before thousands, possibly millions will die.
They must uncover secrets of past times to find clues that will help them
defeat an ancient evil, before it is too late.
This, like Book
One, is super stuff. This is like a modern day Indiana Jones only a little bit
more extreme. It’s exciting. It’s non-stop action. It’s fun. In my humble
opinion it isn’t the greatest writing I have ever come across but to be honest
– I don’t care. It makes you smile. It makes you want more and more. It makes
you want to be part of the action yourself.
Some of the old
characters have returned from Book One. We have the leader of the gang
Ackerman, John Brody, Sam, Caesar and the Dean. All of these characters are
fantastic. None of them are any better than the rest in the sense of being a
stand out hero. They all do equal amounts within the story. They all have their
own attributes and special talents. Some of those talents have been practised
for centuries.
I’m not going to
give anything away about the plot in this one because quite frankly I don’t
want to spoil anything for you. It’s really split in half. It periodically
jumps between present day London and the London of 1650-1670 where we meet some
unlikely heroes called Christopher Wren, Samuel Pepys and Isaac Newton,
battling an ancient evil during the times of the first bubonic plague and the
Great Fire of London. The story adds twists to what we may already know of what
happened back then. It changes things to suit the story. I know there will be
people reading it thinking “that’s not how it happened!” My answer to that? Get
over it. Read the story for what it is and totally lose yourself in it and
enjoy it for what it is.
There are twists
and turns in this story that at times I found a bit confusing. There is a lot
happening in a lot of different locations and occasionally I found it hard to
keep up and connect things. This is because of the huge amount of information
floating around. It all comes together in the end to explain things and
everything clicks into place but I can imagine some people getting confused to
the point of setting it down for a while.
To summarise:
Peter Middleton is really very good at writing this stuff. He has a really good
series on his hands. It’s old school exciting, adventurous, almost what I would
describe as swashbuckling stuff. It’s something to read and not take too
serious. I don’t think it would ever reach the heady heights of say, the
Indiana Jones series but I reckon with the right people behind it, this could
be made into a popular set of movies that almost all the family could enjoy.
Definitely
buy yourself Book One at the same time as this one. Clear yourself some time
when you need cheering up and read these two. You will be smiling at the end.
General rating:
★★★★ Close to perfect but just lacked that little something.
Thriller rating:
★★★★★ Where are my blood pressure tablets?
You can buy The Britannia Contagion here:
Book Synopsis:
In the second book of The Britannia Chronicles, the
Bubonic Plague has returned to London, this time with devastating ferocity. It
kills within eight hours and for the first few hours after infection victims
have an unquenchable thirst for human blood.
The capital is in turmoil. The infected are feeding on
anyone they can find and the virus is spreading at a phenomenal rate. To make
matters worse, existing anti-biotics are completely ineffective and those
responsible for engineering this deadly variant, have kidnapped and infected
the Prime Minister's daughter.
With her own child and her entire nation facing
extinction, Karen Shaw must call on the help of the Alexander Ackerman and the
Guardians. They have just hours to find those responsible, discover their
motives and obtain a cure. To obtain the answers they must delve into the
darkest annals of London's history, but while they hunt for clues they are
being hunted themselves by the deadliest creatures ever to inhabit our plane.
Peter was born in Lewisham, South East London in 1959,
and at the age of twelve he went to a traditional English boarding school
called Christ's Hospital in Horsham, Sussex.
The Britannia Conspiracy is his first novel and he loved
writing it so much he's already hard at work on the sequel The Britannia
Contagion which features the same characters. His novels are historical
horror-thrillers which give people a great insight into British history while
both entertaining and horrifying them!
Peter is delighted to take part in interviews, even for
the lowly blogger.
You can see more of Peter at his website.
Peter’s author page can be found here.
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