Book Review - The Sterling Directive by Tim Standish #HistoricalThriller #AlternateHistory #BlogTour #CoffeePotBookClub @timstandishuk @maryanneyarde

 

The Sterling Directive

By Tim Standish

Publication Date: 20 August 2020 Publisher: Unbound Page Length: 304 pages Genre: Alt-historical thriller

It is 1896. In an alternative history where Babbage’s difference engines have become commonplace, Captain Charles Maddox, wrongly convicted of a murder and newly arrested for treason, is rescued from execution by a covert agency called the Map Room. 

Maddox is given the choice of taking his chances with the authorities or joining the Map Room as an agent and helping them uncover a possible conspiracy surrounding the 1888 Ripper murders. Seeing little choice, Maddox accepts the offer and joins the team of fellow agents Church and Green. With help from the Map Room team, Maddox (now Agent Sterling) and Church investigate the Ripper murders and uncover a closely guarded conspiracy deep within the British Government. Success depends on the two of them quickly forging a successful partnership as agents and following the trail wherever, and to whomever, it leads. 

An espionage thriller set in an alternative late 19th-century London.

Book Rating:

📚📚📚📚📚⭐ = A book in a million

📚📚📚📚📚 = I could not put this book down. I Highly Recommend.

📚📚📚📚 = A really great read.

📚📚📚 = It was enjoyable.

📚📚 = It was okay.

📚 = Um...! 😕

My Review

The Sterling Directive

📚📚📚📚📚

Captain Charles Maddox was in exile, forced to fight in the army to save himself from execution for a crime long since committed. When he returns to London before his exile is finished, under a fake name, and almost immediately finds himself fighting a duel, things aren’t looking good for him. He is arrested, albeit not because of the duel, then broken out of prison by a mysterious agency calling themselves the Map Room. The Map Room makes a deal with Charles – join the agency and gain a pardon, or leave and be arrested and, most likely, executed.

This book is one that I cannot compare to anything else. I have never read a book like it before, and this is a positive reaction! This book is based in the Victorian Era, yet there is technology that simply didn’t exist in that time period, creating a fantasy world that is easy to get lost in. Charles takes on the offer and becomes an agent, agent Sterling, to be specific, and he is immediately given a directive – to investigate the Ripper murders for, although it has been a few years since they last happened, there is a new suspicion in the agency that Jack the Ripper was not just one person. This might be the information necessary to catch him, or indeed, them.

Charles and his partner, Church, head off on an adventure of mystery, murder and action, creating a very exciting story that I found it difficult to put down. Despite being a fantasy, I had no trouble understanding the world that I found myself in, as everything was explained wonderfully.

I thought this book was thrilling and incredibly gripping, and it is the sort of book that I don’t mind reading again.

You can find this book over on Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon CA, Amazon AU, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, Audio

Tim Standish grew up in England, Scotland and Egypt. Following a degree in Psychology, his career has included teaching English in Spain, working as a researcher on an early computer games project, and working with groups and individuals on business planning, teamworking and personal development.

He has travelled extensively throughout his life and has always valued the importance of a good book to get through long flights and long waits in airports. With a personal preference for historical and science fiction as well as the occasional thriller, he had an idea for a book that would blend all three and The Sterling Directive was created.

When not working or writing, Tim enjoys long walks under big skies and is never one to pass up a jaunt across a field in search of an obscure historic site. He has recently discovered the more-exciting-than-you-would-think world of overly-complicated board games.

Author image taken by Hannah Couzens Photography.

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