Review: Hawksmoor

Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Not an easy read, but one that is worth the trouble. Rather than bring early 1700 London to the reader (as most HF fiction writers do), we are taken back through his use of historically correct English. Nicholas Dyer is at work, designing and supervising six new churches as directed by Parliment. Dyer's personal religious convictions fall far outside of what is expected of someone given such a commision, but he finds a way to balance private with public. Meanwhile, back in our time period, some nasty murders have taken place in some very old churches, and we have a story that bridges time through the voices of two characters who are as similar as they are different. The use of two time periods is what makes a story that could have been a historic slog into a very good piece of writing. Just when you're about to give up with the archiac language, it's back to the future, so to speak, and the story whips along in it's current day ugliness.



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