”Act of Oblivion” is another of Robert Harris’s wonderful literary thrillers that entertain even as they plunge the reader into little-told history. This time he tackles the aftermath of Oliver Cromwell’s republican rule of Great Britain in the 1660s and the birth of a new nation across the Atlantic. Two Puritan officers who had taken part in the execution of King Charles I are now hunted by a driven revenger, and Harris expertly drives up tension as the pair try to vanish in the new world of America. Not as propulsive as some of the author’s intelligent thrillers, Act of Oblivion nevertheless thoroughly captivates by twinning the religious fervors of both pursuer and pursued. The build-up to the finale absorbed a long night of reading. Recommended.
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