I’d never heard of this despite being a hit book that was subsequently dramatised by the BBC. Set in 18th century Yorkshire, it is a fictionalised account of the real Coiners, a gang of currency forgers.
Many of the characters are based on historical individuals, who are brought to life through dialect, thoughts, and action. The descriptions of the moors are fantastically earthy, and that applies to both uses of the adjective as there is an undercurrent of the supernatural about the world Myers has created.
I loved the style; simple touches such as no quotation marks around dialogue somehow make the book flow so very smoothly, without making parsing any harder.
The sense of power hierarchies in a criminal gang, the leverage of that power, and the challenges it creates when the authorities attempt to break things up are brilliantly materialised.
I loved this, and will check more of the author’s work.
