VILE BY KEITH CRAWFORD
Paperback published by Little Wonder Books
Elianor Paine is a Combat Magistrate in the Kingdom of Trist
Her royalist master sends her to Shadowgate, a fiefdom on the mountains border with the mysterious shape shifting kindred. Her mission is to investigate a series of reported disappearances and rumours of a murderderous Black Dog.
This is no quest for justice. Elianor’s orders are to use whatever she finds to force Lord Vile if Shadowgate to return to the capital in support of the beleaguered Queen and her warden protectors. Vile was once one of Trist’s greatest heroes, favoured by the old King and foremost amongst the aristocracy. Now the monarchy is close to collapse. Shadowgate and the nation itself are on the verge of civil war and foreign invasion.
But Elianor Paine is a Republican secret agent and a traitor. Saving the Queen would ruin everything for which Elianor has striven the liberation of the people, the destruction of the aristocracy, and a new revolution. She has seven days to subvert her mission and supplant Lord Vile with one of his heirs, one more sympathetic to a Republic, before her master discovers her betrayal and has her killed.
Can her cause still be noble if she must lie, deceive, and murder to achieve it? And just how much is she prepared to sacrifice?
MY REVIEW
When I did the cover reveal for Vile, I knew that this was one of those books about science fantasy that I wanted to read.
Vile is Keith Crawford’s debut novel. Soon as I stared to read Vile, it didn’t take me long to discover that Keith Crawford has a very good imagination allowing the scenes to flow with such hype that’s it’s impossible to put down.
One of the sentence I loved that showed the authors imagination is ripe. Well, well, well, professor Burkengat said. There’s always one. Anybody else know the name Elianor Paine? One of the main characters is Elianor Paine and she is going to be one of characters that will fill the pages, she is one of the reasons that gave me my reading enjoyment.
I loved the maps at the beginning explained in full where abouts is Shadowgate castle is . The maps shows, The Shadowgate Massacre in 1682. And there’s a list of key people associated with Shadowgate Massacre with Elianor Paine. A list of names for The Shadowgate guards. Many other fascinating maps are within Vile to read.
With the full on fantasy I recommend Vile to all readers who read a lot of science/fantasy
ABOUT AUTHOR KEITH CRAWFORD
Keith Crawford is a retired Navy Officer, a disabled veteran, a Doctor of Law & Economics, a barrister, a stay-at-home Dad, and a writer. He has written for collections of scholarly works, academic journals, and newspapers including The Economist. He has had more than thirty plays recorded or produced for stage, been listed in a variety of short story competitions (in spite of his hatred of short stories), and runs a radio production company, http://www.littlewonder.website, which regularly runs competitions promoted by the BBC to help find, develop and encourage new writers.
In 2014 he was lecturing at Sciences Po in Paris and negotiating a contract to write a book on banking regulation, when he and his wife discovered to their delight that they were due to have their first child. Rather than writing more work that would only be read by his poor students, and then misquoted by politicians, he decided he would do his bit to stick his fingers up at the patriarchy and stay home to look after his own kids rather than the grown-up kids of rich people. Two more children swiftly followed. Keith has discovered that if you recite Stick Man backwards you get the lyrics to AD/DC’s Highway to Hell.
This (looking after the kids, not satanic rites with Stick Man) allowed him to support his wife’s career, which appears to be heading for the stratosphere, and also gave him the space to write about swordfights and explosions. And spaceships. All of which are more fun than banking regulation. As an extension to his work in radio production, he set up his own small press, and his first novel, Vile, is due to be published in December 2019. More novels will swiftly follow, like buses in countries that don’t privatise the bus companies.
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