– reviewed by Kristine Marshall –
For this review I was given the choice of various books to choose from. Being a lover of fiction I chose Quintin Jardine’s, Mathew’s Tale and trundled off to Tanners Book Store to pick up my complimentary copy (thank you Tanners!). I wasn’t disappointed. Mathew’s Tale is Jardine’s 40th book and I’ll admit the first one I have read by this author. I am particularly impressed with Jardine’s ability to create characters that come to life. Solid, authentic and robust characters; each one quickly and vividly makes a lasting impression telling the story through their unique voice. From the war-hardened solider of the Napoleonic Wars, to the sweet, broken-hearted young woman left behind, Jardine’s characters are perceptively descriptive.
Set in Scotland in 1818, Mathew’s Tale is a suspense-filled page turner. After the death of his father, Mathew joins the beleaguered Scottish Army fighting at Waterloo. Accepted by his fellow soldiers as competent, fair and vicious, Mathew gets his first taste of corruption and injustice and is unsympathetically jolted into manhood. Trekking across Europe to earn his keep and return to his homeland with pride, Mathew finds the Carluke of his childhood gone and his peaceful, pastoral ideal replaced by a foreign territory, as changed and unfamiliar as the weathered Mathew. True to his tenacious nature Mathew quickly re-establishes himself, becomes a successful and respected business man and learns to live with the lies that took his young bride-to-be away from him.
Finding new love and settling down to life in increasingly industrialized Scotland, Mathew begins to lose the demons that haunt him. Everything changes when his best friend is wrongfully accused of murdering the Laird of Carluke and Mathew discovers the deep seated corruption of the Scottish Justice System. Giving his personal promise to his condemned friend Mathew sets out to place the legal system on trial and through carefully placed influence, overcome evil.
Jardine spins an eloquent, fast-paced, twisting tale of loss, love, corruption, betrayal, influence and although imperfect, long-awaited and hard-won justice. I found myself cheering for Mathew to the end.
New Releases – Available at Tanner’s Books:
FICTION:
Escape by David Baldacci
No Safe House by Linwood Barclay
Gray Mountain by John Grisham
Rise and Fall Of Great Powers by Tom Rachman
Black Feathers by Rob Wiersma
NON-FICTION:
I Must Say: My Life As A Humble Comedy Legend by Martin Short
Organized Mind by Daniel Levitin
This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein
Common Ground by Justin Trudeau
Canada In The Great Power Game by Gwynne Dyer
