📖 Paperback Publication Day Review ~ The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys by Jack Jewers

 

Moonflower Publishing
11 May 2023

My thanks to the publisher and Midas for my copy of this book

Samuel Pepys Diary has enthralled readers for centuries with its audacious wit, gripping detail, and indecent assignations. Pepys stopped writing at the age of 36. Or did he? This action-packed historical thriller imagines what might have happened next.

The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys by Jack Jewers picks up a week after Pepys’ last diary entry, and follows Pepys on a mission to investigate the death of a Crown agent in Portsmouth – the home of the Royal Navy. Events spiral out of control, embroiling Pepys in a deadly plot that reaches higher than he ever could have imagined. And along the way he is forced to confront some uncomfortable truths about who he is and what he really believes…

Jack Jewers re-imagines one of Britain’s greatest historical figures through a 21st century lens. Readers will love how Pepys not only turns detective but must confront his own prejudices along the way. What better allies for one of history’s most infamous womanizers than a secret society of dangerous outlaws, made up entirely of women?

📖 My Review..

We have just witnessed Coronation of King Charles III and as we enter this new Carolean age this clever historical mystery takes us back to the time of King Charles II and to the secretive world of the diarist, Samuel Pepys. I have read tiny snippets of his famous diary so it has been fascinating to imagine, along with the author, just could have happened to Pepys after he wrote his last diary entry in 1669. 

The Restoration period was a time of great change for England with the King newly restored to his throne it should have been a time of stability and growth however, a series of catastrophic disasters which started with the Great Fire in 1665, followed by the devastation wrought by the plague in 1666, decimated the country. We enter into the novel during the Anglo-Dutch conflict and it is this world which the author captures in such interesting detail as Samuel Pepys is sent undercover to Portsmouth to discover what trouble lurks within the confines of the Royal Navy.

Pepys is a great raconteur, witty and sardonic and yet has a meticulous eye for the minutiae of detail which lends itself perfectly to this shadowy tale of danger and deadly intrigue. The mystery at the heart of this historical novel brings an interesting, and rather unconventional, perspective which opens up a world of crime and leads Pepys and his trusted companion, Will Hewer, into a very different world to the one they have left behind in London. 

Nicely recreating the Restoration age, The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys is a well written debut and the start, should the author so choose, of what could be an interesting series with Pepys and Will at the center of the adventure. 

About the Author

Jack Jewers is a filmmaker and writer, passionate about history. His career has been spent telling stories across every form of media, and his body of work includes film, TV, and digital media. His films have been shown at dozens of international film festivals, including Cannes, New York, Marseille, Dublin, and London’s FrightFest, garnering multiple accolades, including an award from the Royal Television Society and a nomination from BAFTA Wales for Best Short Film. The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys is his first novel.

Twitter @JackJewers

@moonflowerbooks