Jaffareadstoo....: Review ~ Spirit of the Highway by Deborah Swift

Endeavour Press
2015

England 1651

Spirit of the Highway is the second part of the Highway trilogy which began with Shadow on the Highway, and which is aimed at the teen fiction market, although to be honest, it's perfectly possible to enjoy this story if, like me, you left your teens behind a long time ago.

The story is set in the tumultuous years of the English Civil War and is narrated by Ralph Chaplin's ghost, a young man who fights bravely for the Roundhead cause, but in doing so he makes deadly enemies and his love for the owner of Markyate Manor, Lady Katherine Fanshawe complicates things even further.

As always, this talented author draws you into an entirely believable world, one where danger lurks on every corner and where neighbours fight with each other, often with deadly consequences. Time and place is captured perfectly and England in the time after the royalist defeat at the battle of Worcester is well explained.

Even though this is the second book in the trilogy, with the third expected sometime in 2016, it is really easy to pick up the story as it stands comfortably on its own. I am sure that those teen readers who enjoy 17th century fiction, and who have followed this trilogy from the begining, will find much to enjoy. There is even a well written and succinct section at the end of the novel in which the author does a commendable job of putting Civil War history into context.

Having read this author’s adult historical fiction, I am delighted to find that her teen fiction is equally as good and look forward to seeing how this trilogy concludes later this year.

Best read with....a bowl of Abigail's rich pottage and cups of small beer, ripe with yeast...