Reading Group Questions
1. Who was your favourite character?
2. Do you think there are any similarities between Cromwell’s England and
England today?
3. What do you think the effect of coffee houses was when they first arrived in
the city?
4. Do you think the censorship laws, and reading people’s letters in the name of
security were justified?
5. “I wept for a monster who did not know he was one until his master
rendered him so”. Do you think Seeker is a monster?
6. Who do you find easier to empathise with – the ex-Royalists who disguised
their views and cooperated with Cromwell’s regime in order to have a quiet
life (like William Davenant), or those like Lady Anne or Jakob Hendricks who
kept fighting for their cause, even if it might start another civil war?
7. “It’s no crime, is it, Captain? George Tavener was in his rights, if he bought his
licence”. As slavery was legal at the time, was Tavener in his rights to buy and
sell Archibald Campbell?
8. What do you think of the ‘solution’ Grace’s village found to save themselves
from the night-men? Is it ever reasonable to sacrifice one person to save
many?
9. What do you think of Seeker’s willingness to bend the law at the end of
the book? Effectively, he shields a murderer – do you agree with his
actions?
10. When you got to the end of the story, did you think justice had been done?
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