'Once I picked it up, I couldn't let it go' - Michael Jecks
1818, Carluke, Lanarkshire. Mathew Fleming returns home to Scotland following heroic service at the Battle of Waterloo. After seven years away, he is a ghostly presence to those he left behind.
But Mathew is ambitious and soon becomes a man of influence in his county and beyond. Yet through all his success, he still hides the loss of his one true love.
When a terrible act of murder occurs, Mathew must choose between the rule of blood and the rule of law. And as a man of honour with a warrior's instincts, he embarks on a journey of vengeance that will test every sinew of his faith in mankind...
What readers are saying about Mathew's Tale:
'The quality of the prose, which feels authentically early 19th-century and has such a skilled lightness about it, sucks the reader in and [this book] becomes an addictive read'
'Mathew's Tale is full of colour, immersing the reader in a bygone age with deceptive ease. It is such a pleasure to read'
'This is a highly accomplished, sensitive novel, enriched by great storytelling, characterisation and historical setting and mood'
Quintin Jardine was born once upon a time in the West - of Scotland rather than America, but still he grew to manhood as a massive Sergio Leone fan. On the way there he was educated, against his will, in Glasgow, where he ditched a token attempt to study law for more interesting careers in journalism, government propaganda, and political spin-doctoring. After a close call with the Brighton Bomb in 1984, he moved into the even riskier world of media relations consultancy, before realising that all along he had been training to become a crime writer. Now, forty novels later, he never looks back.Along the way he has created/acquired an extended family in Scotland and Spain. Everything he does is for them.He can be tracked down through his blog: http://quintinjardine.me