A story about two men hiding in an attic for twenty years does not hold much hope of being interesting, yet the author manages to carry it off. One always expects something to happen in the next chapter. ( )

Historically very interesting but otherwise a bit too long and tedious. And the characters didn’t really come to life. ( )

A cracking good pageturner showing the best of Robert Harris's style. The tension mounts as the hunting down and execution of the killers of Charles I continues apace. A chase across New England ensues - the descriptive prose is so good you can smell the place. ( )

No a blockbuster thriller but a beautifully crafted, exquisitely paced historical recreation - packed with believable period detail, redolent of time and place. A joy to read. ( )

Robert Harris has consistently shown his skill at recreating widely differing historical periods, from ancient Rome to WWII England to Russia during Yeltsin's regime. In Act of Oblivion, he tries a new century, the late 1600s after the death of Cromwell and Charles II's ascent to the throne. As part of the deal he made to return to power, Charles has agreed to forgive those who launched the civil war, except for the 50+ men who signed his father's death warrant or presided over the trial.
A handful are taken into custody and some others surrender, hoping the king will grant them pardons. Instead, they all end up hanged, then drawn and quartered with their heads on pikes at the entrances to London.
While several of the regicides escape to Europe, two head for Colonial New England and Harris' story goes back and forth between their attempts to avoid detection in America and the authorities efforts to track them down by locating their families in London.
Harris captures the infighting and plotting in the royal court amidst a city wracked by plague and fire. But he does an even better job imagining life in Boston, Hartford and New Haven in the 1690s, where small settlements, most of them led by Puritan religious fanatics, struggle to carve out a lonely existence in the vast north American forest.
The plot wanders at times. The regicides spend years in hiding and it is hard to keep up the tension over that period of time.
But Harris is aiming for a more serious theme. Charles and his brother, the Duke of York, are corrupt, frivolous and cruel, while the Puritans are always guided by their belief that God is guiding their actions and their success or failure must reflect his approval or disapproval of them.
A surprisingly large number of folks are willing to shelter the fugitives, at least so long as there are no serious consequences for doing so. But when the authorities draw near, self preservation out-ranks belief and the regicides are told to move on.
One of the regicides is a relative of Cromwell and one of his top generals, and he reminisces regularly about the high and low points of the revolution. After much thought, his faith has been challenged. Of Cromwell, he muses, "One could never be too sure with Oliver. Ambition and godliness, self-interest and the higher cause, the base metal entwined with he gold.”
Act of Oblivion is not my favorite Harris book. Fatherland and Archangel have tighter story lines and more agreeable heroes. But I admire his recreation of a time in American history that is rarely written about, and I have a much better understanding of the English civil war after reading it. ( )