Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Catching the Eagle
    Unavailable
    Catching the Eagle
    Unavailable
    Catching the Eagle
    Ebook385 pages7 hours

    Catching the Eagle

    By Karen Charlton

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Easter Monday, 1809: Kirkley Hall manor house is mysteriously burgled. When suspicion falls on Jamie Charlton, he and his family face a desperate battle to save him from the gallows.

    When £1,157 rent money is stolen from Kirkley Hall, it is the biggest robbery Northumberland has ever known. The owner sends for Detective Stephen Lavender, a principal officer with the Bow Street magistrate’s court in London, to investigate the crime. Suspicion soon falls on impoverished farm labourer, Jamie Charlton, and the unpopular steward, Michael Aynsley.

    Jamie Charlton is a loving family man but he is hot-tempered and careless. As the case grows against him, it seems that only his brother, William, can save him from an impending miscarriage of justice.

    But William is struggling with demons of his own. Desperate to break free from the tangled web of family ties which bind him to their small community, he is alarmed to find that he is falling in love with Jamie’s wife.

    Set beneath the impenetrable gaze of a stray golden eagle whose fate seems to mirror that of Jamie's, 'Catching the Eagle' is a fictionalised account of a real trial that devastated a family and divided a community.

    A SUSPENSE-FILLED PAGE-TURNER
    "Told with gritty realism, ‘Catching The Eagle’ is a suspense-filled page-turner, which spares nothing in its descriptions of the hardships and injustices suffered by the poor at the turn of the 19th century.
    Its ending leaves the reader poised perfectly for the next volume – for which I can hardly wait."

    Kathy Stevenson, 'The Daily Mail'

    AN ENJOYABLE READ
    "It is a rollicking tale full of adultery, drinking, fighting, gambling.
    Rich imagery, suspense and some genuinely likeable characters – as well as plenty of murky ones – make this an enjoyable read. Karen is particularly strong at capturing the Geordie dialect and recreating the rural Northumbrian world of the 1800s, where the wealthy lived in comfort and the poor struggled to make ends meet."

    Laura Fraine, Culture Magazine, 'The Journal' (Newcastle)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherFamelton Publishing
    Release dateJul 19, 2014
    ISBN9780992803681
    Unavailable
    Catching the Eagle
    Author

    Karen Charlton

    Karen Charlton writes historical mysteries and is also the author of a non-fiction genealogy book, Seeking Our Eagle. She has published short stories and numerous articles and reviews in newspapers and magazines. An English graduate and former teacher, Karen has led writing workshops and has spoken at a number of literary events across the north of England, where she lives. Karen now writes full-time. A stalwart of the village pub quiz and a member of a winning team on the BBC quiz show Eggheads, Karen also enjoys the theatre and won a Yorkshire Tourist Board award for her Murder Mystery Weekends. Find out more about Karen’s work at www.karencharlton.com.

    Related to Catching the Eagle

    Related ebooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Peasants Are Not Revolting

      Mar 13, 2024

      WE couldn’t afford to live in St John’s Wood—think of the taxi fares’ (overheard in Claridge’s). ‘Are you going home with him?’ ‘I might as well: I am pregnant, anyway’ (overheard outside a Mayfair nightclub). ‘How do you take your coffee, madam?’ ‘L

      2 min read

    • Article

      Notes From The Isles

      Apr 14, 2023

      Yet again nemesis has smothered my hubris. Having boasted of my expertise in getting the car up our steep, icy track, I awoke to find myself snowed in, near the top of a glacier, totally cut off from all traffic. A nephew and his wife, who were comin

      4 min read

    • Article

      It’s Snow Joke

      Mar 25, 2020

      It’s Snow Joke
      4 min read

    • Article

      Lamport Hall

      Mar 7, 2024

      Lamport Hall
      6 min read

    • Article

      Climbing Mount Cameroon

      Nov 18, 2019

      In 1895 Mary Kingsley became the first woman to climb Mount Cameroon. Her apparel was unlikely: long black trailing skirt, tight waist, high collar, a small fur cap, lace-up shoes and a parasol. In every respect she was unusual. With no formal school

      4 min read

    • Article

      Magnets: Carried through time, lovers seek their purpose.

      Feb 6, 2014

      Moon Colony B, 2213 Former Ponzi-schemer Mary Pillar digs through a trashcan. It smells like rotten eggs and milk. She is elderly and homeless, living in an alley between two eco-efficient skyscrapers. Dust particles dance around her. She has lost ev

      11 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un's Notes

      Jan 11, 2023

      Just before Christmas, historian Lady Antonia Fraser composed a verse on confronting that age-old companion to faith – doubt – at Farm Street Church, Mayfair. Nick Downes is one of the most treasured cartoonists at Oldie Towers (see above right for a

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Kevin Barry

      Dec 18, 2020

      Rattling around the house in the County Sligo hills, swinging from bouts of paranoia to moments of strange, demented hilarity, a 900-page doorstopper was just what I needed to stay grounded. The post A Year in Reading: Kevin Barry appeared first on T

      2 min read

    • Article

      Externalities

      Jan 10, 2023

      “In economics, an externality is the cost or benefit that affects a party who did not choose to incur that cost or benefit.”—James Buchanan and W. Craig Stubblebine The library rolled heavily into town, bearing its cargo of knowledge mundane, esoteri

      15 min read

    • Article

      Art And The Artist

      Apr 20, 2022

      ASPIRING AUTHORS ARE ALWAYS told, write about what you know. If there is an equivalent for sporting artists, Daniel Crane has followed it to the letter. Born and brought up on a farm, Daniel followed hounds with a passion since his teens and has been

      1 min read

    • Article

      I Dreamt I Dwelt In Marble Halls

      Sep 15, 2021

      THIS is a deft and stylish exploration of a vast and complex topic. The author, a former Architectural Editor and Editor of COUNTRY LIFE, has visited hundreds of country houses, investigating and understanding their stories, and this naturally inform

      5 min read

    • Article

      Television

      Jul 28, 2021

      Growing up on a farm, I learned to detest the outdoors as a place of pain and boredom. That boiling summer of 1976, when there was no water and lavatories were not to be flushed – I was heaving hay bales about; then corn stooks. This was Glamorganshi

      3 min read

    • Article

      How White Supremacists Used Mardi Gras to Enforce Racial Division

      Aug 4, 2020

      The stage is arranged, the Ku-Klux pageant begins. On March 4, 1867, a Monday at 10 am, 2,000 firemen jostle left and right into parade columns on Canal Street, near the levee of the river. Their costume is full dress uniform. Marshals from the Firem

      5 min read

    • Article

      Great Reads

      Dec 11, 2020

      It’s the holiday where shopping centres become a sea of dazed shoppers bearing checklists as long as your arm, lunch is a never ending buffet of prawns and ham and your electricity bill is doubly struck by having to run the fan all day and keep those

      1 min read

    • Article

      Tragic King of the Guinea Pigs

      May 1, 2024

      Here are some delights for you! Charles Lamb (not the great essayist) was a somewhat sad and lonely child, born in 1816. His particular passion was a fascination with chivalry and tournaments. And he built an exquisite castle for hundreds of pet guin

      3 min read

    • Article

      Hook, Line And Sinker

      Oct 18, 2018

      Hook, Line And Sinker
      4 min read

    • Article

      All I Want For Christmas

      Dec 16, 2020

      IT was more than an icicle. More like an icy boulder, oversized and murkily white, faceted like a cartoon jewel and, shortly, dripping. It had lurked beneath a low stone bridge at the bottom of the wood, where sycamore thickets bald for winter gave w

      18 min read

    • Article

      Dynamic Duo In Public, Perfect Partners In Private Charles And Camilla how The Strength Of Their Relationship Will Be At The Heart Of A Successful Reign

      May 8, 2023

      Dynamic Duo In Public, Perfect Partners In Private Charles And Camilla how The Strength Of Their Relationship Will Be At The Heart Of A Successful Reign
      4 min read

    • Article

      Perfect Prose II

      May 15, 2020

      Perfect Prose II
      4 min read

    • Article

      Something Wicked This Way Comes

      Sep 3, 2019

      Something Wicked This Way Comes
      8 min read

    • Article

      Towns Like Ours

      May 3, 2018

      Towns Like Ours
      9 min read

    • Article

      The Petulant King

      Nov 12, 2022

      The Petulant King
      8 min read

    • Article

      A Pre-loved Treasure House

      Oct 14, 2019

      A Pre-loved Treasure House
      9 min read

    Reviews for Catching the Eagle

    4/5

    12 ratings5 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      This novel is based on the life story of the author's husband's ancestor Jamie Charlton, a farm labourer accused in 1809 of robbing a vast amount of rent money (over £1,000) from his employer. While he seems to be innocent (though the novel doesn't quite make this absolutely clear beyond doubt), he splashes around money he has obtained from elsewhere and pays off a lot of debts in a short space of time. He generally acts in a cocksure way, spending money on brandy and gambling while his family goes hungry, so he is not a particularly sympathetic character, regardless of his guilt or innocence of the crime. He is discharged at a preliminary hearing due to lack of evidence, but then a year later tried and condemned to death, following new highly suspect "evidence" told by a cellmate. The judge has doubts and recommends clemency, and Jamie is eventually transported to Australia. There are many colourful and interesting characters, including the Bow Street Runners Lavender and Woods from the author's separate detective series, whose real world counterparts really did investigate the accusations against Jamie Charlton. Having read the four books from that series, the Bow Street Runners are much less sympathetic characters here, and only play a small part in proceedings. A good read, and I will now go on to read the author's non-fictional account of how she and her husband did the genealogical research that formed the basis of this novel.
    • 3/5
      I liked the concept behind this book and the story itself was ok, but I just couldn't get into the book. The writing style was too descriptive for me. I prefer my stories to go much faster and leave more to the imagination, so I think this book was just not my type of book. Others might love it.
    • 4/5
      Catching the Eagle is a nice light, quick read. Set during the Regency period, this story follows the lives of those in the middle and lower classes. Set in northern England, the story has us meeting the Charlton family, of whom one of the eldest sons is accused of stealing from the local estate. To me, this was a unique point of view, for a novel set in this time. The Charltons, and most of the people we encounter in the book are all working people. The Charltons are farmers or perform odd jobs around the region. Most of the novels I've ready that are set in this time are ones that mostly deal with the people in the big houses, or those in their social circles. What makes it more interesting, is that these are real people. Jamie Charlton is an ancestor of the author's husband, who was tried for the robbery that is the basis of the novel.While it was a fun and light mystery novel feel, and it had a good ending that tied things up, it was not the most satisfying ending to a story. Although, I suspect that is largely related to the nature of the crime and what was known when the events took place. However, this is the first novel of a series based on the border reivers (robbers or raiders along the Scottish border, according to the author), so I hope we get to see more of the Charltons in the next one.
    • 5/5
      WOW. Fun! … WOW again!The introduction to this book had me captured. Karen Charlton knocks it out of the park with the beautiful description of countryside as the reader follows the path of an eagle. At first, I thought – oh no, please don’t let this be hokey, but then my thoughts moved to.. wow, okay this is beautiful writing and then, at the last line of that introduction, my breath was stolen away at the compare and contrast of the eagle and the man.And that was just the beginning, folks.Karen Charlton writes the story of Jamie Charlton, his wife Cilla, their children, and his family (brothers and mother). This is based in historical fact, as Karen writes this book from her own family history… but what makes this story such a knockout is, even though you are led to believe you know who the thief is – the story is so filled with twists and turns it will have you guessing and questioning the entire way through.From the descriptions of the time period, the wildly colorful characters surrounding Jamie, the heartache experienced by Cilla, described so vividly by Charlton, the ups and downs, twists and turns – this book begged me to keep reading until the final line was read. I just couldn’t put it down.I love a good historical fiction book, and I was not disappointed by Catching the Eagle. I highly recommend you check this one out – I just wish I’d read it before I made my Christmas recommendations!
    • 4/5
      I found this book a little slow to get into at the beginning. There are a lot of characters in the book to introduce and I had some trouble keeping everyone straight. Once I managed that, everything flowed really well and I greatly enjoyed the author's, Karen Charlton's, writing style. She gave just enough description that I could see the scenes in my mind, then let my imagination take over.The novel depicted the vast differences in the social stations at the turn of the 19th century. The nobles and the wealthy held the power, and we see how Jamie, a poor farmer, is railroaded through the legal system. Ms. Charlton wrote in vivid detail the horrid conditions of the jail and the mistreatment that Jamie went through. I really wanted to bring him a pizza! Yet, all the evidence was circumstantial at best. He just didn't have the social standing to have the charges dismissed.The absolute best part of this book is that it is based on a true story. Jamie Charlton is an ancestor of the author's husband. It was obvious from the beginning that Ms. Charlton put in exhaustive research to get the details of the trial correct, as well as the lives of each character in the novel. Catching the Eagle is the first in a planned three book series. I cannot wait to find out what happened to Jamie, Will, and all the rest! The book is released today, so run get it for yourself!I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.