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The Devil’s Acre Kindle Edition
A novel of intrigue, violence and conflicted loyalties from the author of The Street Philosopher.
What price to take hold of the devil’s right hand?
Spring, 1853. After a triumphant display at the Great Exhibition in London, the legendary American entrepreneur and inventor Colonel Samuel Colt expands his gun-making business into England. He acquires a riverside warehouse in Pimlico and sets about converting it into a pistol works capable of mass producing his patented revolvers on an unprecedented scale – aware that the prospect of war with Russia means huge profits.
The young, ambitious Edward Lowry is hired by Colt to act as his London secretary. Although initially impressed by the Colonel’s dynamic approach to his trade, Edward comes to suspect that the American’s intentions in the Metropolis are not all they appear.
Meanwhile, the secretary becomes romantically involved with Caroline Knox, a headstrong woman from the machine floor – who he discovers is caught up in a plot to steal revolvers from the factory’s stores. Among the workforce Colt has gathered from the seething mass of London’s poor are a gang of desperate Irish immigrants, embittered refugees from the potato famine, who intend to use these stolen six-shooters for a political assassination in the name of revenge. As pistols start to go missing, divided loyalties and hidden agendas make the gun-maker’s factory the setting for a tense story of intrigue, betrayal and murder.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherHarperCollins
- Publication date24 Jun. 2010
- File size1.0 MB
Product description
Review
From the Author
The William series by Richmal Crompton. The hedgerows, villages and copses of 1930s England seemed like a fascinatingly alien place to me in 1980s Essex; I remember being particularly interested by the stories that dealt (albeit rather lightly) with spy-related paranoia on the eve of the Second World War.
2. Which book has made you laugh?
Any Dickens, but especially David Copperfield; a number of Herman Melville's short stories, particularly "Bartleby the Scrivener", although he makes you feel very guilty for that laugh; Joseph Heller's Catch-22, the great novel about the sheer absurdity of war. More recently, I chuckled at the mordant mocking of self-absorbed media types in Edward Docx's Self Help.
3. Which book has made you cry?
Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware - a poignant tale about family guilt, awkwardness and missed opportunities, rendered in one of the most strikingly original graphic styles I've seen. Mason and Dixon by Thomas Pynchon – after many hundreds of pages of post-modern trickery, the novel suddenly becomes an intensely moving study of loss.
4. Which book would you never have on your bookshelf?
Any form of misery memoir or celebrity autobiography.
5. Which book are you reading at the moment?
The Lieutenant by Kate Grenville; Lady Worsley's Whim by Hallie Rubenhold, an exploration of a notoriously torrid eighteenth-century divorce case; The Fall of Paris by Alistair Horne, a vivid account of the siege which ended the Franco-Prussian War.
6. Which book would you give as a present to a friend?
Anything by Chris Ware - beautiful, startling, affecting stuff that I suspect many people would not consider reading as they are graphic novels - but to my mind it's easily as engaging and intelligent as the majority of literary fiction. Very funny in places as well.
7. Which other writers do you admire?
To name only a few: Living: Peter Carey, Kate Grenville, Sarah Waters, Philip Roth, Beryl Bainbridge, Rose Tremain, James Ellroy, Gunter Grass, Chinua Achebe, Pat Barker. Dead: Charles Dickens, Herman Melville, George Eliot, Henry James, Joseph Heller, Saul Bellow, Raymond Chandler, Joseph Conrad, Angela Carter.
8. Which classic have you always meant to read and never got round to it?
Middlemarch by George Eliot. I have a pristine copy, in fact, untouched and huge, sitting accusingly on the shelf above my desk.
9. What are your top five books of all time, in order or otherwise?
No particular order:
- True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey: I'm usually a bit wary of historical novels that take the form of "real" documents - journals, letters and so on - but this is a major exception. An amazing act of ventriloquism that creates a fresh, poignant portrait of a much-represented figure, and a truly humbling experience for anyone who has tried to recreate a nineteenth-century "voice".
- Wise ChildrenA Midsummer Night's Dream at the height of Hollywood's "golden age". The style is rich and engrossing, with marvellously chaotic, carnivalesque set-pieces.
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville: Massively ambitious, sprawling, terrifying, unique and completely unforgettable. The prescience of Melville's thinking is incredible - it seemed to me in places to anticipate Conrad's Heart of Darkness by fifty years - and the white whale remains one of the towering symbols of literature.
- Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens: I reread this whilst preparing for The Street Philosopher as it was the novel Dickens wrote whilst the Crimean War was being fought. Along with an intriguing meditation on the relationship between wealth and identity (one of the great Dickensian themes), it also features some extremely acerbic Crimea-inspired satire of governmental incompetence – as embodied by the notorious Circumlocution Office, dedicated to ‘how not to do it’.
- Romola by George Eliot: One of Eliot's lesser known works, this a historical novel set in late fifteenth century Florence around the time of Savonarola and the Bonfire of the Vanities. Eliot (who considered it her best book) uses this setting to explore a central debate of her own time: the dichotomy between spiritual and worldly concerns, between religion and learning, the soul and the mind. This idea of employing the past as a means of approaching the present was a major influence on me when I started to write historical fiction.
Portrait of a Killer by Patricia Cornwell, in which she argues very unconvincingly that the British post-impressionist painter Walter Sickert was Jack the Ripper. This odd thesis is backed up by no substantial evidence whatsoever, and Cornwell famously destroyed a painting in search of a fingerprint – which as an admirer of Sickert's work I find quite upsetting.
11. Is there a particular book or author that inspired you to be a writer?
I was very inspired by George Eliot's Romola (see above). Fingersmith by Sarah Waters also left a deep impression on me; a convincing evocation of a historical moment is paired with a taut, compelling story, a combination I now aim for in my own historical fiction.
12. What is your favourite time of day to write?
Mornings, 8.30 – 11; evenings 8 – midnight. I'm not ritualistic about it or anything though. And favourite place? My study in south-east London, surrounded by dog-eared reference books, piles of notes and photocopies, random bits of junk and empty coffee cups.
13. Longhand or word processor?
I make copious notes in longhand, and am devoted to the large-scale chart as a means of ironing out plot problems. All actual writing, however, is done on a laptop. I can't actually imagine doing it any other way - my writing style has evolved around the ability to cut and paste, and to work up sentences gradually, tinkering and rearranging at will.
14. Who, in your opinion, is the greatest writer of all time?
It has to be Charles Dickens. I have great difficulty choosing a favourite from his novels - there are at least half a dozen essentials, all of them endlessly interesting.
15. Which book have you found yourself unable to finish?
To my shame my attention wandered off a short way into Dante's Purgatorio; I found it rather less compelling than the magnificently weird Inferno which precedes it.
16. What is your favourite word?
Today, it's monolith.
17. Other than writing, what other jobs have you done?
I have been a freelance college lecturer in London for the past few years, mostly teaching Victorian art and architecture to visiting American students from Skidmore College and the University of Chicago. When I was a post-graduate student I worked as a gallery tour guide and a slide librarian (once a dull if necessary role in university art history departments).
18. What was the first piece you ever had in print?
An academic piece entitled A Stern and Just Respect for Truth: John Ruskin, Giotto and the Arundel Society, published in an obscure art historical journal called Visual Culture in Britain.
19. Tell us about The Gun-Maker’s Gift?
It’s a novel set around the short-lived weapons factory established in London in 1853 by the legendary American gun-maker Colonel Samuel Colt, self-proclaimed inventor of the revolver. It's a sort of loose companion piece to The Street Philosopher, with an entirely new setting and cast of characters; the main story concerns Colt's strenuous efforts to win the patronage of the British Government in the build-up to the Crimean War, and involves political corruption at the highest levels, the (a)morality of arms dealing, and intricate, back-stabbing conspiracies - culminating in gun-fighting on the streets of Westminster.
About the Author
Product details
- ASIN : B003YFJ6TE
- Publisher : HarperCollins (24 Jun. 2010)
- Language : English
- File size : 1.0 MB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 432 pages
- Page numbers source ISBN : 0007273975
- Best Sellers Rank: 1,065,009 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- 2,388 in Political Fiction (Kindle Store)
- 3,298 in Political Thrillers & Suspense
- 6,371 in Political Fiction (Books)
- Customer reviews:
About the author

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Customer reviews
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Learn more how customers reviews work on AmazonCustomers say
Customers find the book's characters engaging and well-developed. They appreciate the author's knowledge of history, which is conveyed without being overly detailed. The language used is appropriate to the period, making it a good read with a good pace.
AI-generated from the text of customer reviews
Customers appreciate the depth of the characters and their interplay with historical and fictional ones.
"...introduced within the first few chapters and are immediately recognisable as strong characters which have plenty of room for development...." Read more
"...reviews,but I wanted to add that I feel there is a real depth to the characters & one cares what happens to them...." Read more
"...was well written with a good pace and like the way the historical characters inter-played with the fictional ones. All in all, a good read" Read more
Customers appreciate the book's knowledge. They find it a good way to learn about history, with a good combination of factual information and exciting dramatization. The subject is commendable, but some reviewers felt the ending was poor.
"...A good combination of factual information and exciting dramatisation gives a book which is recommended...." Read more
"...I like the fact that he imparts a great deal of knowledge without patronising the reader,& has given this reader a taste for exploring more..." Read more
"Commendable subject, poor ending..." Read more
Customers enjoy the book's language. They find it well-written with a good pace and appropriate for the period. Readers say the book is better than described and worth reading slowly to absorb the details.
"...Language used is appropriate to the period and it is worth reading the book slowly in order to soak up the slightly unfamiliar words and soak up the..." Read more
"I thought this was well written with a good pace and like the way the historical characters inter-played with the fictional ones...." Read more
"The book was better then described. It came in time. A good idea buying this hardbound book cheaper then a paperback." Read more
Customers find the book easy to read. They appreciate the good pace and mention it's worth reading slowly to soak up the period details.
"...Language used is appropriate to the period and it is worth reading the book slowly in order to soak up the slightly unfamiliar words and soak up the..." Read more
"I thought this was well written with a good pace and like the way the historical characters inter-played with the fictional ones...." Read more
"I found this an enjoyable read, especially as I live fairly close to where much of the action takes place...." Read more
Top reviews from United Kingdom
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 February 2012This story follows Samuel Colt who comes to London from US to set up a factory in the early 1850s. You will find out about his attempts to sell his newly invented revolver to the UK military.
The characters are all introduced within the first few chapters and are immediately recognisable as strong characters which have plenty of room for development. There is a large factual element to the book but several of the main people have been invented to fill in the gaps in the story which have not been recorded. I read the book with a pc to hand so that I could get some background as I went along. The story is very interesting and manages to cover Victorian politics, harsh living conditions and the massive progression of the industrial revolution all in one book.
Language used is appropriate to the period and it is worth reading the book slowly in order to soak up the slightly unfamiliar words and soak up the atmosphere.
A good combination of factual information and exciting dramatisation gives a book which is recommended. You will need to have an interest In history but,if you have, then you will enjoy it.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 2 May 2010Having read Matthew Plampin's first novel, I eagerly awaited this one & have not been disappointed.The synopsis of the story has been stated in earlier reviews,but I wanted to add that I feel there is a real depth to the characters & one cares what happens to them.The larger than life Colonel Sam Colt could be pictured clearly.The fact that there was a Colt factory in London was a revelation to me & the research into the life & times as lived by the characters is faultless.I like the fact that he imparts a great deal of knowledge without patronising the reader,& has given this reader a taste for exploring more historical novels.Bring on the next one Matthew Plampin, lets have more plot,murders & a bit of political intrigue.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 February 2011I thought this was well written with a good pace and like the way the historical characters inter-played with the fictional ones. All in all, a good read
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 October 2010I found this an enjoyable read, especially as I live fairly close to where much of the action takes place. Normally historical novels are not my chosen reading, but other people's reviews persuaded me and I was not disappointed. In fact, I'd almost say this is a historical novel for people who aren't fans of historical novels!
One point to note is that there are quite a number of characters (and sometimes the author swaps between using the first name and surname), and if you don't have a great memory for names, you'll need to make yourself a cheat-sheet, at least until you get well into the book.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 April 2016The book was better then described. It came in time. A good idea buying this hardbound book cheaper then a paperback.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 1 March 2011The inspiration for this historical novel is the Colt weapons factory, which actually did exist on the banks of the Thames in London in the 1850s.
Colonel Samuel Colt was an American gun manufacturer who established a factory in London. When Matthew Plampin learned of this, he became fascinated by both the factory and its owner - the bombastic Colonel Samuel Colt - great scope, indeed, to imagine all sorts of intrigues, illicit dealings and sabotage by London rivals who resented the presence of the American. And this is what we read about in 'The Devil's Acre'.
Did I enjoy this book? Yes, enough that I read it to the end but not enough that I would recommend it to a friend. Maybe I've become a mystery junkie, needing some suspense to drive the plot and this was notably absent. Also, there was a large cast of characters and the point of view switched quite frequently from character to character. I found myself rereading sentences rather more often than I liked.
On the plus side, I loved the historical detail - this is the way to absorb history. What was it like to be an American in London in 1850? How did people respond to Americans in London? What was the political situation? What were the Irish doing in London in 1850? Who were the Molly MacGuires? Of course, Matthew Plampin cannot give us definitive answers, but in exploring through fiction, we find things out that we didn't know before and I really enjoyed this.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 May 2017This was quite a good story. Not an amazing piece of literature but entertaining. Historically I don't know how accurate it is, but that is hardly the point
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 November 2012As the President of the Londony Navy Colt Club, I commend the author on picking up Sam Colts London Factory from the sidelines of history and bringing it back to life.
First halve of the book was intersting, may I dare say even gripping...sadly it just dropped off second halve to a rushed and undeserving ending with no point or moral. The subject and research in to the matter did not warrant this and wastes the readers time. Be carefull to pick up another book from this author in future if there is undeserving endings.
Makes one wonder why the author started to desert his own project...didn't see the light at the end of tunnel...lost interest in his own subject...??
Shame... two stars, just cant reach three.