1649, a decisive moment happens in the English Civil War with the execution of King Charles I. 1660, Oliver Cromwell is dead having won the war but his short-lived Republic is over and the Restoration of the Monarchy has happened with Charles II installed as King of Britland. Parliament passes an “Act of Oblivion” which pardons everyone who committed crimes during the Civil War and subsequent Commonwealth period - except for 59 “Regicides” who signed their names on the King’s death warrant.
Over half the Regicides have since died but, of the remaining survivors, two names are highest on the most wanted list: Edward Whalley and William Goffe, who are suspected to have fled to the New England colonies across the Atlantic. Richard Nayler is appointed by the Crown to hunt down these men and bring them the King’s justice. And so the chase begins - will Whalley and Goffe get away with it?
Like in An Officer and a Spy, Robert Harris has taken a little known historical episode and written a lengthy novel about it - and, like that other novel, Act of Oblivion is unfortunately really boring.
Harris certainly seems to have done his research and he brings the time period to life convincingly enough with lots of detail. You know how sometimes people say they learn more about history through reading historical novels than actual history books? I can see people saying that about Harris’ historical novels like this one.
The problem is that this is the majority of the novel because there isn’t a great deal to the story itself. It takes an age for Nayler to get across the pond to the colonies and even longer for anything further to happen. And then nothing really happens after that until the cheesy Hollywood-esque ending.
It’s straightforward stuff and, to fill in the massive gaps to the narrative, Harris throws in scene after scene of characters politicking, asking each other where so and so has gone, going here, going there, flashbacks to the Civil War to give Cromwell and Charles I some useless airtime just because they’re major historical figures - it’s a lot of pointless fluff that bogs down a glacially-paced story.
It’s not clear who we’re meant to be rooting for but, because Nayler, Goffe and Whalley are such meh characters, I didn’t feel strongly one way or the other whether the Regicides escaped or whether Nayler caught up to them. It’s that uninvolving a narrative.
An occasional scene was entertaining as the chase shortens at times - it helps that I wasn’t familiar with the history so didn’t know whether Whalley and Goffe actually escaped or not - and it is informative overall, so that you get a vivid idea of 17th century life in England and what would become the USA. It definitely isn’t compelling for the most part though, unlike quite a few of Harris’ novels - I wouldn’t rec Act of Tedium to anyone looking for a fun adventure, unless dry historical detail is all you’re after. If you want to read Robert Harris’ better historical novels and haven’t read them yet, check out Enigma, V2 or Imperium instead.
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