"Cooper delivers an emotionally charged page-turner..."

• ASIN: ‎ B0CLS2GM4W
• Language: ‎ English
• Print length: ‎ 438 pages
• Genre:  Supernatural Historical Fiction

The BookViral Review:

A measured and absorbing tale of cruelty and gross injustice Russ Cooper adds his own spin to the legend of Maud’s Elm in Maud. A finely constructed Historical Fiction that avoids slipping into cliché territory as he navigates the line between respecting the story’s historical bones and telling an original tale.

There’s a certain sense of scale that’s inevitable in novels like Maud and on this level, it’s easy to embrace Cooper’s historically creative fiction as he brings Maud and her mother Meg to life. A tragic story of greed and obsession in which Cooper brings Maud into sharp focus as a living, breathing human being with passion, intelligence and warm affection.

The pivotal characters are those of Maud and Meg, and to a lesser extent Walter, alias The Archer, interweaved with the skulduggery of Godfrey Bowen and the nefarious intentions of Robert de Vere and Cooper’s feel for detail is terrific. Every one of his characters is an individual and refreshingly his narrative remains clear of trite clichés as he finds the right pace and style for his Middle Ages Swindon setting.

The problem with a story like Maud is the tendency to over-demonize and dehumanize its villains to produce the desired effect, which brutalizes the reader along with the story and characters but Cooper has a fine sense of shading and manages to pitch his narrative just right. On this level, Maud is a novel to be relished with the relationship dynamics wonderfully observed and Cooper’s fine ear for dialogue echoing the thoughts of his characters with a clarity which proves wholly gripping throughout.

Sometimes when you read a novel, it’s so vivid that it just takes over and puts you head and shoulders alongside its characters and that’s exactly what Cooper does. An emotionally charged read Maud is highly recommended to fans of historical fiction and those with a historical interest in the legend of Maud’s Elm.