Waiting on Wednesday – The Bear Pit by S. G. MacLean

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them.

The Bear Pit Cover.jpg

In this week’s Waiting on Wednesday, I take a look at The Bear Pit by S. G. MacLean, one of the historical fiction books of 2019 that I am looking forward to the most. The Bear Pit is the fourth book in MacLean’s The Seeker series, which follows Captain Damian Seeker as he uncovers conspiracies and solves murders in Cromwell’s England. I absolutely loved the third book in The Seeker series, Destroying Angel, last year, and I am eager to see where the author takes the series next.

Hachette Australia Synopsis:

London, 1656: Captain Seeker is back in the city, on the trail of an assassin preparing to strike at the heart of Oliver Cromwell’s Republic

The Commonwealth is balanced on a knife edge. Royalists and disillusioned former Parliamentarians have united against Oliver Cromwell, now a king in all but name. Three conspirators, representing these factions, plan to assassinate the Lord Protector, paving the way back to the throne for Charles Stuart once and for all.

Captain Damian Seeker, meanwhile, is preoccupied by the horrifying discovery in an illegal gambling den of the body of a man ravaged by what is unmistakably a bear. Yet the bears used for baiting were all shot when the sport was banned by Cromwell. So where did this fearsome creature come from, and why would someone use it for murder?

With Royalist-turned-Commonwealth-spy Thomas Faithly tracking the bear, Seeker investigates its victim. The trail leads from Kent’s coffee house on Cornhill, to a German clockmaker in Clerkenwell, to the stews of Southwark, to the desolate Lambeth Marshes where no one should venture at night.

When the two threads of the investigation begin to join, Seeker realises just what – and who – he is up against. The Royalists in exile have sent to London their finest mind and greatest fighter, a man who will stop at nothing to ensure the Restoration. Has Seeker finally met his match?

From the description above it sounds like this will be a book that heavily combines murder mystery with historical conspiracy, as the protagonist hunts a murderer in London while also attempting to stop several assassins coming for his boss. The murder sounds like it will be incredibly fun part of this book, especially with a non-existent bear being the potential murder weapon. I will be very interested to see what solution MacLean comes up with for this murder and I hope it will be something very inventive. I am also looking forward to the conspiracy part of the book, and I am sure that the assassins and mysterious Royalist agent will prove to be impressive antagonists for this book. The murder and the conspiracy parts of this book will no doubt be tied together, and I am looking forward to an excellent overall story.

I am also looking forward to diving back to the chaotic and intriguing historical setting of Cromwell’s England that the author used to such great effect in the previous books. I thought this setting worked really well in Destroying Angel’s small-town setting, and I am curious to see how the city of London looks like in this interesting historical period. It also sounds like the protagonist will be forced to visit several unique locations around the city, and I am sure that will result in some fun and exciting plot points.

The Bear Pit is shaping up to be an incredible new addition to The Seeker series, and I am really looking forward to this coming out in July. If the story matches the fantastic sounding description, I am sure that this will be another five-star book and it should be pretty awesome.