Review: The Fugitive’s Sword by Eleanor Swift-Hook

Autumn 1624

Europe is deeply embroiled in what will become the Thirty Years’ War.

A young Philip Lord, once favoured at King James’ court, has vanished without a trace, under the shadow of treason.

Outside the besieged city of Breda, Captain Matthew Rider faces the brutal reality of wintering his cavalry in the siege lines, until he crosses paths with Filippo Schiavono, a young man whose courage and skill could change everything.

Kate, Lady Catherine de Bouqulement, arrives in London prepared to navigate the dangerous politics of King James’ court to ensure troops are sent to her mistress, the exiled Queen of Bohemia.

Within Breda’s walls, a foundling named Jorrit unwittingly stumbles into a lethal conspiracy when Schiavono hires him, supposedly to help sell smuggled tobacco. But Schiavono’s plans go awry and they are compelled to flee the city, only to be captured at sea.

If Schiavono is unable to prove his loyalty and ruthlessness to a savage Dunkirker privateer captain, both he and Jorrit will face certain death.

Meanwhile, in London, Kate is forced to fight her own battle against those seeking to coerce her into their schemes and finds herself trapped in a terrifying and deadly power struggle.

Driven by violence, treachery, and the sea’s merciless tides, their fates collide.

My Review

I only read one Philip Lord book in the past, so I was not as enamored as some of the reviewers to go back to his younger days. Our young Philip was an intriguing character, seemingly much too brilliant and world-wise for his age of fifteen—as every person who met him for the first time thought. By the end, I, the reader, also expected miracles from him. We immediately learn he is on the run from England (and King James) for some undisclosed offense, and changes his name to Filippo Schiavono as he tries to reinvent himself and find a new profession. I think. I wasn’t entirely sure what he was up to. When he encounters a young boy who inadvertently falls in with him, we get a good description that carries us throughout the book:

The Englishman stopped and looked down at him. Despite himself Jorrit shivered inside. The man’s eyes were as cold as the sea in winter and the turquoise colour of it on a clear day. He wore a sword with a basket hilt and looked as if he would be happy to use it given any excuse.

There is some good action with spies, renegades, and shady characters, then the book abruptly switches us over to someone named Kate, close servant to King James’s daughter, the exiled Queen of Bohemia. Kate has her own mission to accomplish and is continually thwarted by the Duke of Buckingham, who apparently nurses an antagonism toward her. I admit, I was much more interested in Schiavono’s tribulations than Kate’s somewhat less arduous problems, and I found it difficult to switch between the parallel stories. Of course, the two threads finally came together near the end, but even then I was left scratching my head. Perhaps the future stories which I hadn’t read might have shown me the purpose of this open-ended encounter between them. By the time I got to the end of the book, I had totally lost track of the beginning sequence that led to Schiavono’s adventures in the first place, and had to go back and review it. The author plunged us efficiently into the turbulent seventeenth century, and even in the elegant drawing rooms we don’t quite feel comfortable. The story is nicely spiced with preparations for a court masque written by the venerable Ben Johnson, as well as some pirate action guaranteed to set the blood moving. Bottom line, I think I would have enjoyed the book more had I been a follower of Philip Lord’s adventures. As a first-time reader, I had a difficult time keeping track of the characters and the war raging in the background. Nonetheless, the prose moved along nicely and it kept me interested.


This title is available to read on #KindleUnlimited.

Universal Buy Link: https://mybook.to/TheFugitivesSword


Meet Eleanor Swift-Hook

Eleanor Swift-Hook enjoys the mysteries of history and fell in love with the early Stuart era at university when she re-enacted battles and living history events with the English Civil War Society. Since then, she has had an ongoing fascination with the social, military and political events that unfolded during the Thirty Years’ War and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

The Soldier’s Stand, book two in Lord’s Learning and the sequel to The Fugitive’s Sword, is now available for preorder and will be released on 25 February, 2025.

She lives in County Durham and loves writing stories woven into the historical backdrop of those dramatic times.

Connect with Eleanor

Website:          www.eleanorswifthook.com
Twitter:           www.twitter.com/emswifthook/
Facebook:        www.facebook.com/LordsLegacySeries
Bluesky:          http://bsky.app/profile/emswifthook.bsky.social
Book Bub:       www.bookbub.com/profile/eleanor-swift-hook
Amazon Author Page:            www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Eleanor-Swift-Hook/author/B0BKTP1CMG
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/author/show/22989983.Eleanor_Swift_Hook

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