Ethyl Smith's Convenantor Series Gift pack
Changes Times (Part I)
1679 - The Killing Times
Charles II is on the throne, the Episcopacy has been restored, and southern Scotland is in ferment.
The King is demanding superiority over all things spiritual and temporal and rebellious Ministers are being ousted from their parishes for refusing to bend the knee.
When John Steel steps in to help one such Minister in his home village of Lesmahagow he finds himself caught up in events that reverberate not just through the parish, but throughout the whole of southern Scotland.
From the Battle of Drumclog to the Battle of Bothwell Bridge, John's platoon of farmers and villagers find themselves in the heart of the action over that fateful summer where the people fight the King for their religion, their freedom, and their lives.
Set amid the tumult and intrigue of Scotland's Killing Times, John Steele's story powerfully reflects the changes that took place across 17th century Scotland, and stunningly brings this period of history to life.
"...a remarkable and compelling debut " Jan Fortune
"Ethyl Smith brings history vividly to life in a novel bristling with energy, with her acute ear for the nuances of dialogue (in which what is cannily left unspoken is gratifyingly imagined by the reader). She has a gimlet eye for detail, illuminating home, courtroom, army barracks and battlefield." - Catholic Herald
Dark Times (Part II)
The summer of 1679 is a dark one for the Covenanters, routed by government troops at the Battle of Bothwell Brig. John Steel is on the run, hunted for his part in the battle by the vindictive Earl of Airlie. And life is no easier for the hapless Sandy Gillon, curate of Lesmahagow Kirk, in the Earl's sights for aiding John Steel's escape.
Outlawed and hounded, the surviving rebels have no choice but to take to the hills and moors to evade capture and deportation. And as a hard winter approaches, Marion Steel discovers she's pregnant with her third child.
Dark Times is the second part of Ethyl Smith's sweeping Times series that follows the lives of ordinary people in extraordinary times.
Desperate Times (Part III)
July 1680: Richard Cameron is dead, and John Steel and Lucas Brotherstone have only just escaped capture by government forces.
The net widens to arrest anyone suspected of Covenanter sympathies, and the army becomes ever more brutal in its suppression of the rebels.
To have any hope of survival Lucas Brotherstone must escape to Holland, and John Steel is determined to make this happen.
Broken Times (Part IV)
Scotland 1683
Gripping and rich in detail, this immaculately researched book is the fourth instalment in Ethyl Smith's Times series.
