Summary from Goodreads:

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 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 young 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, the first novel in the Regency Reivers Series, is a fictionalised account of a trial that devastated a family and divided a community.

My Review:

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!

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