The Rebel Killer

Jack Lark #7

by Paul Fraser Collard

Paul Fraser Collard's roguish hero Jack Lark - dubbed 'Sharpe meets the Talented Mr Ripley' - returns once more, switching sides to join the ranks of the Confederate Army. This latest adventure will see Jack journey through the Southern states as the American Civil War continues in earnest, and is a must-read for fans of Bernard Cornwell and Simon Scarrow. 'Enthralling' - The Times

Jack Lark, once the Scarlet Thief, has abandoned the rolling Virginian hills and is on the run with Rose, an escaped slave girl who is more than his match. Soon he will find his way into the uniform of the Confederate Army in an adventure that will culminate at the Battle of Shiloh - the bloodiest conflict in American history at its time.

Genres: Historical Fiction, War, Civil War, Historical

432 pages, Hardcover

First published July 26, 2018

About the author

Paul's love of military history started at an early age. A childhood spent watching films like Waterloo and Zulu whilst reading Sharpe, Flashman and the occasional Commando comic, gave him a desire to know more of the men who fought in the great wars of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. At school, Paul was determined to become an officer in the British army and he succeeded in winning an Army Scholarship. However, Paul chose to give up his boyhood ambition and instead went into the finance industry. Paul stills works in the City, and lives with his wife and three children in Kent.

Reviews

[Andy · Rating 2 out of 5]

We’re still in American & our hero is involved in the AWI, not a subject I follow often so it piques my interest in that regard, as well as being a series which has been an enjoyable “boys own” adventure style to date. In fact this series has followed quite a few conflicts which are not oft covered in military fiction books.

The story picks up straight after the last book, that of the aftermath of the Battle of Bull Run, the opening battle of the Civil war, where our hero Jack Lark & his new love interest, Rose, are trying to elude capture & get back to Union lines in amongst various confederate looters & lynch gangs. It’s a bloody & brutal start as Lark as an assured & professional killer, leaves nothing to chance in his pursuit to protect both Rose & himself, although I think if her calming influence was not present, we’d have even more casualties! Perhaps even Jack himself.

As the reader you can see that this “escape” isn’t going to end well & it’s not long before the story turns into one of vengeance where Jack’s beast is unleashed on it would seem the whole of the confederate nation for our Jack is nigh indestructible & can take on the world…… The story becoming a little incredulous at times with the scrapes/odds he finds himself up against, even a touch of the melodramatics too as our hero wrestles with his emotions. These are my early observations, through the first 75 pages or so, for the record.

However, before we get to the actual revenge part, we have quite a long hiatus where not much happens (at all) as Jack recovers from wounds sustained in the opening exchange & it’s in truth a very laborious read where he’s holed up on the farmstead & before you know it, near half the books gone, then there’s still a fair way to go pardner, on the trail….. which in truth I felt was a little tedious at times…. Actually it was a lot tedious & devoid of any real action n excitement. This is dying on it’s feet…… then there's the "flirting" between Jack & Martha....... don't get me started on that trite.... im not really sure who this book is written for....?

Finally we get to the “action” scenes & by now ive pretty much had enough of this read, it’s been boring & devoid of anything, plus the melodramatics/dynamic of Jack/Martha are nauseating to say the least & grating beyond believe….. I don’t really know why I rode this out…… I mentioned action scenes, well we do have a battle or two but even they got on my wick with the continual use of “rebel yell” & “bullets stinging the air”….. each scene, jus rinse & repeat with of course Jack loosing the plot & surviving against all the odds, it got a little tiresome tbh……

Not my favourite of the bunch by a long chalk, melodramatic for the most part where it focuses too much on Jack’s thoughts as opposed to jus getting on with it & perhaps also, actually.... no perhaps about it, it does lack the historical element (except the weaponry) that others in the series have revealed, and then by the time it came to the action part I jus couldn’t care less….. laughable, a total cringefest…..

I can't give it 1 star because for some reason I actually finished it although I did skip read the last night...... so it's 1.5 stars rounded to 2 stars is all & I’m outta here……

Not sure I'll be continuing in this theatre with this series as I see the next book is in the Americas too, might skip ahead to Africa (Abyssinia).... then again maybe i'll park this series

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

For his seventh adventure, Jack Lark switches sides during the American Civil War and he is a man possessed - vengeance is all he wants. This is the darkest and most violent of the books to date and, as a result, it isn't my favourite but, nevertheless, it's a fast, action-filled read, packed with details about mid 18th-century warfare and the American Civil War. Review to follow shortly on For Winter Nights.

[Robin Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review
Anyone who reads this review blog will know that im a big fan of Paul Collards writing, since book one he has managed to capture the spirit of Sharpe, that action and pace, the thrill and horror of battle but it was tempered with a style and pace that engaged and held the reader pinned to their seat, i’ve usually finished each book in a single sitting, never wanting to leave Jacks side.


follow link for full review
https://parmenionbooks.wordpress.com/

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

The latest (at the time of reviewing) of Paul Fraser Collard's Jack Lark series, which I see is still being advertised as 'Sharpe meets The Talented Mt Ripley': while that may have been true of the early novels, I feel - now - that Jack Lark has more of his own identity.

Which is, perhaps, ironic in a series where the central conceit is the main character is an imposter.

In this one Jack is not the only imposter: without giving away too much, he sets himself on a trail of revenge whilst wearing the uniform of a Confederate Officer (as opposed to that of a Union officer he wore in the last novel) during the American Civil War. I say wearing, as that is all it really is to him: simply a means towards an end.

Culminating in the battle of Shiloh, Jack definitely seems to have a knack for finding himself caught up in all the great military happenings of his time!

[John Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack Lark returns to the American Civil War but not like you would expect. In the last installment, Jack and Ruby were caught behind enemy lines (The Confederate lines) after the slugfest of Bull Run. They can run but they can't hide as one Major Nathan Lyle, C.S.A. and his calvary captures Jack (wearing the wrong uniform) and Ruby.
After a shoot out Jack is shot up seriously and finds himself in a Confederate hospital with no Ruby. Jack refuses parole and escapes with help from Samuel ( one of the best characters in this book). and find himself near death, till he finds Martha and her father who take him in to heal (once again two great characters in this book.) It is Martha who explains to Jack about why the average dirt farmer fights against the north.
After her father is murdered by Confederate bushwhackers, Martha tags-along with Jack to find her husband. Martha is the real hero of this book, who time and time again tries to stop Jack on his vengeance against Major Lyle for killing Ruby. Being Jack, he doesn't listen, of course.
This brings us to Shiloh the great battle of the Western Campaign. Where both Jack and Martha find vengeance and loyalty to a husband.
I would say that this is Paul Fraser Collard at his best. Jack changes identities many times, a Lark feature, and his battlefield description explains the Civil War landscape and as always the horror of war.
Having walked the Shiloh battlefield many times, I knew exactly that we would be in Hornets Nest; it was smart to keep Jack in the western theater instead of standing with Lee, Longstreet or Jackson.

So where does Jack go from here? The West? China? Mexico? The field in 1863 is open, Paul, or will we go back to the Uncivil War. I for one would hope not..

Great book! I would read the entire series before tackling this one.

[Ray Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good stuff as usual.

[Calvern · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks Paul and don't take to long with book 8😁

Again brilliantly told story by Paul Fraser Collard. It's well balanced with fictional tale of Jack and the Historical record of the battlefield its been set in. Where next for Jack ?? Where ever it is I'm sure there will be heartache and death!!!!!! Thanks Paul and don't take to long with book 8😁

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A small piece of a very large & bloody war comes to life in Paul Fraser Collard’s The Rebel Killer. Amidst the astounding violence of the American Civil War, North or South means nothing to Jack Lark. He has lost his mind and will insert himself on any fighting side not caring who wins or loses so long as it gets him near the man who is the target of Jack’s blinding need for payback. Jack’s lust for revenge brings him face to face with his biggest foe, his own demons & there is nothing like a woman who isn’t afraid to unleash them on him. Book 7 in the Jack Lark series is a nail biting, stomach twisting ride of a read.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jack Lark is BACK!

Better than ever, too. And this time wearing Confederate gray rather than Union blue. He's on the hunt for revenge and finds himself amongst the hellish Battle of Shiloh, one of Ulysses S. Grant's early and bloody triumphs.

Paul Fraser Collard has outdone himself again. Every Jack Lark adventure is better than the one before. I could barely put this one down - and it's straight onto my Goodreads 'favourites' shelf. Can we hope to see Mr Lark involved in the fray of Gettysburg in a forthcoming instalment? Here's hoping!

[Damien Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The latest book in the gripping Jack Lark series

The Rebel Killer takes you on a gripping journey of deception, survival and action. The author has continually raised the bar and this book is no exception. Long live Jack Lark!

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jack Lark is a defeated man. Soul-scarred after the campaign in northern Italy, he came to the United States desiring nothing but to deliver a letter from a mortally wounded comrade to his parents. He arrived in America as the South made its bid for independence, and accepted a job within the Union army as a bodyguard to a rich but foolish scion of a Boston family. Hated by his Irish ‘comrades’, Lark thought nothing of leaving the Union army following the defeat at Bull Run — and, in the woods, he found a new love and a new purpose — until Confederate raiders savagely destroyed every hope he had for a light beyond fighting, leaving his woman hanging from a tree. Now, beaten, shot, and without a home in the world, Jack Lark desires only one thing: Revenge.

Jack’s path to vengeance will ultimately take him ten miles north of Corinth, Mississippi, where the Union and Confederate armies will create the greatest two-day bloodbath yet seen in the Americas — though battles to come will exceed the butcher’s bill of Shiloh. The Rebel Killer covers nearly a year (July 1861 – April 1862) in which Lark is captured by Confederates, escapes wearing a stolen uniform, and makes his way across the South to find the raider who killed his love, seeking refuge with a family of freeholders during the wintry months before witnessing the battle around Fort Donelson and finally Shiloh. As with The True Soldier, The Rebel Killer focuses more on Jack’s character than battle. Although he’s heavily engaged throughout the novel, in small fights and epic battles, Jack is completely disconnected from the conflict: from his time spent with both Union and Southern soldiers, he sees little reason to villainize either side: regardless of their governments, the Union soldiers by and large want to preserve the best hope of liberty on the planet by keeping the Union intact: the southerners, most of whom don’t own slaves and jeer at the idea that they’re fighting to keep rich man’s property, insist that they’re simply defending themselves against an outside invasion of the government. Lark judges the fracas between brothers as a sad waste, and the idealism that inspires these men to war on one another throws his own motives for fighting — money and revenge, lately — into shame. Jack is a creature of darkness, excelling only in lies and violence, and his every attempt to find some other life for himself is always destroyed — but time and again, he finds some meager thread to hang on to. Here, befriending another young woman — a southern lass making her way across the country to find her husband — provides him moral pushback. Both Martha and her father urge Jack to consider a life beyond revenge.

Although I was disappointed at first by the generic villainy of the raider, Jack’s struggle with his conscience through the novel makes for a compelling read, especially when joined with the constant action and occasional humor that Collard provides. I appreciated some of the quirks of history that Collard wove into the narrative, like young soldiers before the battle decorating themselves with violets so the Yankees wouldn’t shoot him: that anecdote has come up in several Shiloh histories.

[Keith Beddard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another success for Paul Fraser Collard.
This character Jack Lark, is the Victorian Sharpe but much darker and with far more attitude. The book deals with misplaced vengeance and a coming to terms with himself.
The American Civil War sees Jack change sides from North to South as a means of getting revenge on a Confederate major who, he is told has killed a female former slave Rose, who he thought he loved.
His adventures take him throughout the period between the First Battle of Bull Run to Shiloh and the bloody encounters between.
He is severely wounded but nursed back to life by a married woman and her father. The father is killed in a raid by robbers and his daughter persuades Jack to help her to find her husband who is serving in the Confederate Army. There are sub themes about child bereavement and its effects on parents as well as domestic abuse. Jack finally meets and kills his nemesis whilst the woman, Martha, despite having slept with Jack chooses to return to her wounded husband.
I cannot wait for the next to come out these are great,

[Mr Roy Davidson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointing. After all the passion and constant excitement of the earlier books, this was very slow and disappointing from Mr C. I only continued with the book throughout the desparately slow first half as I had read the earlier books and was expecting more from later books. Half a book convalescing? Another half with a pointless storyline of chasing the major who killed Rose ... who it turned out hadn't. The Jack Lark books are all about taking someone's identity, but this was nothing like that and such a slow disappointment all round. Yes, I will progress to book #08, but only out of loyalty for the earlier books and the hope Mr C will reconver his good writing and remember why people read Jack Lark books.

[anthony heazell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Onto no.8

What a series. I’ve rad 1 to 7 one after the other and loved them and their historical context. They are such a change from my previous subject namely the Napoleonic era. But why is number8 so priced and more expensive than paperback version. But I have bought it!

[Pedro Marroquín · Rating 4 out of 5]

Otra buena entrega de esta serie, aunque algo repetitiva debido a que el protagonista solo habla de revancha. Pero las descripciones debido las batallas están muy bien. B