The Prospect of This City: Being a novel of the Great Fire

by Eamonn Martin Griffin

London, 1666. Agent provocateur Rufus Challis is given a secret mission by the Dutch government; an attack on England's capital in reprisal for wartime losses suffered that summer. He has a single weekend to put his plan into motion.

When Tom Farriner, second son to the King's baker, intercepts an aspect of Challis's plan, he investigates. Already, a friend's blood stains the cobbles. Is Tom man enough to bring Challis down? And to what lengths is Challis prepared to go to in order to see the city fall?

A novel for fans of CJ Sansom, Hilary Mantel, and Manda (MC) Scott, The Prospect of This City is a dark historical thriller with a blade concealed in its sleeve.

Genres: Historical Fiction

309 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2015

About the author

Eamonn Griffin was born and raised in Lincolnshire, though these days he lives in north-east Wales.

He's worked as a stonemason, a strawberry picker, in plastics factories (everything from packing those little bags for loose change you get from banks to production planning via transport manager via fork-lift driving), in agricultural and industrial laboratories, in a computer games shop, and latterly in further and higher education.

He’s taught and lectured in subjects as diverse as leisure and tourism, uniformed public services, English Studies, creative writing, film studies, TV and film production, and media theory. He doesn’t do any of that anymore. Instead he writes fulltime, either as a freelancer, or else on fiction.

Eamonn has a PhD in creative writing with the University of Lancaster, specialising in historical fiction, having previously completed both an MA in popular film and a BSc in sociology and politics via the Open University. He really likes biltong, and has recently returned to learning to play piano, something he abandoned when he was about seven and has regretted since.

Reviews

[Violetta · Rating 4 out of 5]

History books can only go so far - the dates, the names, the numbers, the outcomes. They don't give you the feel, the sense of an era - and they don't give you the smell. This is where you need the likes of Eammon Griffin.
London in 1666 stinks - it reeks of sweat, heat, urine and excrement, filthy water, small beer, raddled whores and freshly baked bread. It also smells of death, danger, plotting and intrigue, and in The Prospect of This City they all come together in one great meaty Restoration soup.
We all know the story - London was devastated by a fire that began in a baker's shop on Pudding Lane. The novel begins a few days before this, but history isn't a spoiler - part of the book is waiting for the twist that will reveal just how the fire started and by whom.
The characters are compelling, and utterly embedded in their era, with real people nicely plaited around the fictional ones. Griffin's prose is rich, describing London and its people in all its stinking glory, and with a striking finale that manages to remain immensely satisfying but also (hopefully) set things up for a sequel.
(I received a complimentary copy of this novel but with no obligation to leave a review).

[adam-p-reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novel is based around two main characters; Tom and Challis. Challis is a mysterious rake who is hired by the Dutch Government to sabotage London. The Dutch are extremely angry after their naval defeat to the English and hope through his cunning and cruelty, Challis can gain some pay back against their enemy. An ex-soldier with an extremely religious ethos and moral code, Challis does not think twice about killing in God’s name. Upon entering London and discovering the cesspit that it is, Challis murders a prostitute to start his cleanse of the once great and virtuous city.

Living across the road from a well-known pub/whore house, Tom is contemplating his life as a baker’s apprentice. However, his fairly simple life becomes much more dangerous as he witnesses the murder of his friend Lizzie at the hands of Challis. Tom decides to take judgement into his own hands and plots to have Challis killed and gain revenge for Lizzie’s murder. However, Tom underestimates Challis’s skill with a blade and his ferocity, leading to Tom’s assassins easily being dispatched. Challis now knows he has an enemy in London and this triggers him to hasten his sabotage. Yet, when Challis gains an opportunity to wreak his own revenge on Tom, he takes it and causes a knock-on effect that quickly brings London to its knees.

I really enjoyed this book and I think that is mostly down to Griffin’s writing style, but I think it needs to come with a warning! That is because Griffin writes this novel as if it was written in 1666 using ‘ye olde’ English. I loved this, I thought it add so much character to the novel and depth to Challis. However, at first when reading the novel and not knowing its style, the writing can seem quite long winded and confusing. Nevertheless, when I realised Griffin was writing in a 17th Century style of English, the book became more enjoyable and easier to understand. In addition, I thought the premise of the book was really interesting and put in to the context of the time, actually seemed very plausible. It always disappoints me when historical-fiction writers move around dates to accommodate their plot lines. Griffin does not do this and makes a very compelling and believable story out of the historical facts.

However, I did have some small points that I didn’t like about the book. Firstly, is its cover art. Now, I have to admit that I was sent a copy of the book by Griffin and don’t know if it’s a preview copy or the finished piece so the cover may have changed. The copy I received has a plain white background with the title written in black ink in the style of an old printing press. Now if I saw this book on a shelf I would automatically assume it was a non-fiction book about the Great Fire and would not buy it. I think Griffin needs to make the cover much more eye catching to try and draw new readers into his very good novel. Throw a few flames on the front, maybe make the cover look like it’s a burning page of a bible (which gives a hint to some aspects of book), anything that makes it more appealing to readers than a plain white page.

Secondly, I really wasn’t a fan of Challis’s Christian rhetoric. He seems to drone on and on about the damnation of this and the righteousness of that, which sometimes really slowed the book down. I get the impression that Griffin is trying to make a point using the bible and religious rhetoric but it goes totally over my head! Maybe that’s my fault, but as a casual reader of this book it confused me and sometimes felt like it was there just to add to the final number count.

To conclude, The Prospect of this City was a very good read and a good starting point for my 2016 reading list. It is available in ebook or as a paperback via Amazon. I’d suggest it to fans of historical fiction, or to anyone who is interested in Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot.

For more book reviews google adam-p-reviews

[David Baird · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book focuses on Rufus Challis and Tom Farriner. I’m not going to spoil the plot for anyone but Challis is not a nice man and Tom suspects this pretty early on.

I’m going to tell you straight away why I’ve given this book a 4 star..as I bloody loved the book but I wouldn’t have looked twice at the book if I hadn’t been sent a copy for review. The cover just doesn’t do anything for me. I know not everyone is like me but a cover needs to grab me.. otherwise I wouldn’t turn it over to read what the book is about.

This book for me was a diamond in the rough. I could never have imaged how brilliant the story would turn out to be.

Challis was a brilliant character, I could have read a whole series of books with him in.. his skills, his insight was exceptional. Is it wrong that I found myself liking the bad guy in a book?

Anyhoo, the other character Tom..he’s a bit of a nosy kid but has good intentions. He lives with his father, brother and Alice. There’s a complex family relationship going on throughout this book which added to the plot that develops with Challis led to one of the best tales I’ve read.

This book is full to bursting with detail.. sometimes too much. When the fire starts I found myself rereading bits of text to make sure I understood what the author was conveying.. there was so much to take in to try and place yourself in the fire.

Saying that at times the detail was so good it really did help you imagine what walking the streets would have been like, urine and faeces all around, whores offering their services to mention a few.

For me this was a brilliant historical thriller that I can’t help but feel anyone would enjoy. The plot is exceptional and it would be a great shame if you didn’t read it.

[Michael Wheldon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is truly something to marvel at. The plot and its execution is truly something to marvel at. As a story revolving around the fire of London I was gripped instantly by the historical aspects of the novel, as well as the novel's endearing characters. Perhaps the most interesting of all characters is the villain Challis, who manages to captivate the audience in his POV sections despite being doing some truly horrible things during the course of the story. One character which I didn't like for most of the novel was the protagonist's brother, Daniel, who appears to be a generic devout Christian. However at the end the character is redeemed as it becomes apparent that this is a mask for coping with his deep seated resentment, which comes to a head in the book's shocking climax. The climax was so shocking that it saved Daniel's character on its own.

Overall the book is very twisty and very well written, and in my mind it is well worth a read. My only gripe was Challis' slipping back into the shadows without retribution at the end. The manner of his leaving is clearly foreshadowing for a sequel so in some ways it could be justified, however when looked at on its own the lack of conclusiveness bugged me, and I expected more retribution for his crimes even if it was only an inconvenience in the long run. However this does little to detract from the overall experience and the book remains a great read regardless.

[Ian Ralph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely brilliant read, thoroughly enjoyed this book. The story cleverly weaves it's fiction around what we know to be true about the Great Fire of London, and despite you thinking you know what might happen, it still surprises and convinces with its twists and alternative takes. One of the the reviews mentions it being written in a C17 century style, this put me off a but before reading it, but you really shouldn't be concerned, it's really not that embedded, just a few phrases and words here and there , which actually became a joy to look up whilst reading! The book is so well written, it really evokes the sights , smells, feelings of the era . Honestly, just a brilliant read, I'm surprised it's not more widely known and read!

[Eamonn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this. Hope you like it! Eamonn Martin GriffinThe Prospect of This City: Being a novel of the Great Fire

[Chris Bullock · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I appreciate the concept and description of the setting, I found that there was too much descriptive narrative and a tendency to sidetrack into other descriptions that detracted from the overall plot.
Unfortunately, after reading 25%, I had completely lost the plot and found it too tedious to continue. There were also a few anachronisms that caused some pause for thought. Nevertheless, it seemed to be quite well researched and well proof read. Perhaps I should have persevered?

[Jack Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conspiracy and murder lead to conflagration

Seventeenth century London convincingly conjured in a tense tale of murder and a plot to bring fire to the London of September 1666. Tom’s father owns a bakery in Pudding Lane but the enemy Tom makes while investigating Lizzie’s death is far more dangerous than the plague, or any amount of family tension.

[Paul Bennett · Rating 4 out of 5]

full review coming soon :-)

London in 1666 is not a reading destination I had visited prior to getting the chance to read and review this enjoyable and entertaining book by Eamonn Martin Griffin. The author has done a fine job of detailing the situation between the English and the Dutch and as such provides the necessary background and characters to bring about the historical conflagration. The story is laid out in a day by day format and is full of exquisite detail about life in London, the smell of the Thames, the piles of offal, the crowded byways and the sought after entertainments (puppet shows, street corner preachers, ale and whores.) The main characters are written in a believable fashion, from the religiously zealous Dutch agent who can rationalize any action he takes by the expedient of his relationship with God, to the rapidly diminishing naivete of the baker's son as he proceeds down a path full of intrigue, mystery and danger. Given that the story takes place in only three days (well, four counting the epilog), the pace is brisk but not as to detract from the author's ability to flesh out the plot and still throw in some surprises. 4 stars

[Alex Clare · Rating 5 out of 5]

You don't read this book so much as follow the characters through the sights, smells and sounds of London. This twisting, story sees a baker's boy unwittingly caught up in international skulduggery and you see the colour and squalor of the city through his eyes. I love it when a book makes you forget where you are because you get so caught up in the atmosphere...