The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews

Synopsis
SHE IS AWAKE…

Norfolk, 1643. With civil war tearing England apart, reluctant soldier Thomas Treadwater is summoned home by his sister, who accuses a new servant of improper conduct with their widowed father. By the time Thomas returns home, his father is insensible, felled by a stroke, and their new servant is in prison, facing charges of witchcraft.

Thomas prides himself on being a rational, modern man, but as he unravels the mystery of what has happened, he uncovers not a tale of superstition but something dark and ancient, linked to a shipwreck years before.

Something has awoken, and now it will not rest.

Review
I love my historical fiction, even more when it is mixed with superstiton and myth. The Leviathan by Rosie Andrews covers these bases brilliantly, with a rich and dark atmosphere and a compelling, if at times sinister plot line.
In 1643 England is in its first year of the Civil War, with eight difficult years still to come. Thomas Treadwater is on leave from fighting and going home to his family’s farm. When he arrives things are not as they should be, animals have died, his father has had a stroke and his sister, Esther, has accused the maid Chrissa Moore with witchcraft for spellbinding her father. As Thomas faces these challanges and tries unravel the truth, his beliefs are challanged by myth and superstition going back years.

The Leviathan grabbed me from the first page with it’s sense of menace and beautiful writing. There is a dual timeline, in 1643, where Thomas goes home and the plot plays out as he tries to understand the circumstamces around his sister and father. In 1703, Thomas, now in his late 70’s living with his wife Mary, is looking back on that time and also dealing with the awakning something terrible. Thomas is a believable narrator, not religious like his father, not believing in god or witchcraft. He is someone who seeks justice in life, which shows in his dogged search for the truth of what has happened to his sister Esther and their maid Chrissa; he actually shows more sense of justice than those trusted with the investigation.

The setting of the backdrop of the Civil War was fascinating. The war had only been going on for a year and the feeling was that people wanted it to end. The loss of life and terrible conditions of the battle fields were leaving both mental and physical scars on the soldiers. It’s not just the soldiers that were suffering, farmers and landholders had trouble getting men to help and even the wealthier people were facing difficulties with the source of food and clothing ; it was a time of frugal food and dull,and threadbare clothes. It is intersting that Rosie Andrews chose one of the themes as witchcraft, the witchcraft trials and fear had been at their height under James I of England, VI of Scotland. In 1643 the idea of witches was waining but there were still accusations and investigations if a lot less traumatic than the years before. Rosie Andrews research shines through in her historical details, capturing the atmosphere of this time and how the war split towns, family and friends. She also brilliantly kept the suspense up throughout the book, the underlying menace had me gripped until the last shocking page.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Leviathan. It was an immersive read, full of dread, suspense and superstition. The stetting of the Civil War was the perfect backdrop with its harshness, grey landscape and the country split over who they support. Beautifully written, atmospheric with a the feel of a classic gothic novel, this is compelling and fascinating, a book I highly recommend adding to your book shelves.