Review: The Keys of Hell and Death

Charles Cordell, The Keys of Hell and Death  (Myrmidon Books 2024)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/210234361-the-keys-of-hell-and-death?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_26

5 July 1643, 5 pm. The Parliamentary cause is in peril. The Earl of Essex is in retreat. In the north, the King’s Army; his Catholic queen Henrietta Maria marches south. Another Royalist force is on its way to Oxford.
Francis Reeve and his half-brother Ralph, from Book 1, are fighting on opposing sides.
The multiple viewpoints take some work to follow, but whichever side they were on, they faced hardship and fear. The huge cast enables a minute-by-minute reportage, where we see the battles from all angles.
I was much impressed by the authenticity of the religious thought which was so characteristic of this conflict, and it’s rich with pertinent biblical references. People of the time must certainly have felt that the End of Days was upon them. The men wad their muskets with pages torn from prayerbooks. Reading from the Bible about Abimelech, the women of Bristol offer their bodies and their children as human shields, rather than to surrender the city to the ‘accursed Cavaliers’.
The first few chapters set the scene for the battles, and the huge cast of characters is introduced. Once the battle begins, it is non-stop excitement. We hear the trumpets and the drums and the screams of horses, feel the heat of the battle, the pain, fear, death, and lice, the do-or-die determination and the fierce partisanship of each participant group.
Phenomenal attention to historical accuracy, so much so that it’s hard to call this fiction, if it weren’t that it’s very much a story, full of passion, and not a dry history book. Most of the characters are taken from history.
The author was a career soldier himself and participates in (and probably directs) historic battle reenactments; he really knows his stuff. We learn absolutely everything about 17th century weaponry and warfare.
In the very heat of the battle, the point of view goes back and forth one paragraph at a time—Francis, Ralph, Francis, Ralph—very effective!
This is three weeks of the English Civil War, from the Battle of Lansdown Hill 5 July to the Storming of Bristol 26 July 1643. War is hell; there’s no happy ending whichever side you’re on. Any Royalist victories have been largely pyrrhic. The king’s forces are in such poor shape it encourages a final victory for Parliament.