I’m reviewing The Knife Maker of Venice by David Gilman #bookreview #blogtour #historicalfiction

Here’s the blurb

A young Englishman captured by slavers must survive the snakepit that is seventeenth-century Venice.

1604. As pirates seeking slaves to sell in the markets of North Africa terrorise the coasts of Europe, headstrong Richard Sheriff and his sister Elizabeth are torn from their Devonshire home and thrust into a waking nightmare.

Richard’s skills as a blacksmith see him fetch a high price, but the pirate captain has other plans for Elizabeth and once they are separated, Richard has no idea of his sister’s fate. They must both learn to survive on a deadly voyage into the unknown.

Sold into servitude in Venice: glittering, vicious city of secrets, he is apprenticed to a knife maker. Richard’s talents soon win him renown… but haunted by his sister’s absence, he vows never to stop looking for her, knowing she would do the same for him.

First he must survive that city of ghosts. Will the siblings live to see each other again, or will they join the myriads lost to Venice, where life is cheap, profit is all, and escape nigh-on impossible?

A powerful historical adventure perfect for fans of Kate Mosse, Ken Follett and Robert Harris.

Purchase Links

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Knife-Maker-Venice-David-Gilman/dp/1035910373

https://www.amazon.com/Knife-Maker-Venice-David-Gilman/dp/1035910373

My Review

The Knife Maker of Venice is a chunk of a book, following the events that befall Richard and Elizabeth, starting with a good punch, before moving somewhat into the future.

It is fraught with peril for our two main characters, although they’re far from the only two voices we hear. Richard is almost unbearably headstrong, and gets himself into many scrapes. Elizabeth is far from the naive individual we might originally suspect, although her story is teased out more slowly than Richard’s.

What follows is a deeply researched tale of life in the early 1600s, thrusting the reader into the possibly previously unknown world of slavers and what happened to those stolen away from the Devonshire coast.

I listened to the audio book for the novel, and very much enjoyed the narrator as he expertly brought the characters to life.

This does take a while to get going – there is a lot of action in the first third, but much of it takes place on the high seas where the author ensures we all know how miserable the voyage is for the unfortunate abductees.

An engaging read.

Meet the author

David Gilman has enjoyed many careers, including paratrooper, firefighter, and photographer. An award-winning author and screenwriter, he is the author of the critically acclaimed Master of War series of historical novels, and was shortlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize for The Last Horseman. He was longlisted for the same prize for The Englishman, the first book featuring ex-French Foreign Legionnaire Dan Raglan. David lives in Devon. Follow David on @davidgilmanuk, http://www.davidgilman.com, and facebook.com/davidgilman.author

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