MAY 2018 - AudioFile
Mixing English, American, Dutch, and French accents, James Langton has a wonderful time narrating this humorous and insightful historical novel. The story takes the listener from the intrigue of the Restoration court of Charles II in England to the deep woods and Puritan politics of the New World in the early 1660s. Celebrated diarist Samuel Pepys, a secretary of procurement in the King’s Navy, is being driven to distraction by his good-humored but utterly unemployable brother-in-law, Baltasar, so he sends “Balty” off on a couple of quick errands across the sea. What could go wrong? With unfailing cheerfulness, Langton take us on a friendly and altogether fascinating romp through some little-known early American history. B.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
From the Publisher
"It’s murder and mirth in Christopher Buckley’s The Judge Hunter." —Vanity Fair
"An entertaining and nicely crafted picaresque thriller with crackling dialogue and a brace of Colonial cops as appealingly mismatched as any of Hollywood's buddy efforts." —Kirkus Reviews
"Christopher Buckley’s style of satire has a peculiar bite: It nibbles, nibbles, nibbles—gently, even delightfully—before chomping down and leaving teeth marks as distinctive as any known to forensic science....The Judge Hunter is a brisk adventure....Buckley’s signature wordplay transposes well to 17th-century England and America, and anyone familiar with the real Pepys will take special pleasure in Buckley’s pitch-perfect fictional diary entries for him....the point of the thing is in the adventure and in the glimpses of a past that is distant but familiar, not only because of the names that still resonate three centuries on but because all the manners of stupidity and greed, intrigue and intrepidity he describes are still very much with us today." —The Weekly Standard
"Christopher Buckley fans and newcomers to his work will delight in this humorous historical novel." —Bookish
"A wry, witty, enjoyable romp....With an almost British, Monty Python–esque dryness, Buckley traipses through the American Colonies and skewers the foibles of the inhabitants....Buckley cleverly weaves his story line with historical threads taken from Pepys diaries and other notes from the Colonial period." —Library Journal
"Buckley (The Relic Master) has turned his quick wit and sharp writing focus on the 17th century in this 2nd book in his historical fiction series....Peppered with historical characters—Peter Stuyvesant, John Winthrop II—and cleverly using Samuel Pepys’ famous diaries, Buckley masterfully weaves a fictional story with historical fact....a rich story ripe for Buckley’s humor and pointed satire on Puritan ideals, royal peccadillos, and political intrigue. The Judge Hunter is an absorbing mystery/thriller with humorous dialog and characters that resonate and draw in the reader. Buckley’s ability to fuse fact with fiction makes this book a must for not just fans of historical fiction but anyone looking for a great read." —Historical Novels Review
"The Judge Hunter is a captivating and witty new novel that combines adventure, comedy, political intrigue, and romance around real-life historical characters....Buckley has a razor-sharp wit....[a] brilliantly plotted historical novel that is extraordinarily entertaining. You will not stop laughing as you read it." —Washington Book Review
"Wildly satisfying and funny...The Judge Hunter is a satisfying romp through America in the 1600s." —Washington Independent Review of Books
"Buckley's wry wit is on display throughout....the characters and events of the period covered in The Judge Hunter offer a trove of material. While it's handled lightly, like any good historical fiction the book sparks the reader's interest in learning more about the events and people it touches on. Carefully researched and constructed with a wealth of authentic details, the novel succeeds in making a sometimes distant and stodgy-seeming era feel somehow contemporary." —National Review
"In these days of nasty name-calling passing as humor there is thankfully one true practitioner of the literary art of satire still standing, and Christopher Buckley’s second historical novel proves it. The Judge Hunter is full of humor that skewers historical figures in all their self-serving political ambitions....Buckley’s humorous satire...is both revealing of painful truths and the timelessness of bad human behavior." —New York Journal of Books
National Review
"Buckley's wry wit is on display throughout....the characters and events of the period covered in The Judge Hunter offer a trove of material. While it's handled lightly, like any good historical fiction the book sparks the reader's interest in learning more about the events and people it touches on. Carefully researched and constructed with a wealth of authentic details, the novel succeeds in making a sometimes distant and stodgy-seeming era feel somehow contemporary."
New York Journal of Books
"In these days of nasty name-calling passing as humor there is thankfully one true practitioner of the literary art of satire still standing, and Christopher Buckley’s second historical novel proves it. The Judge Hunter is full of humor that skewers historical figures in all their self-serving political ambitions....Buckley’s humorous satire...is both revealing of painful truths and the timelessness of bad human behavior."
Historical Novels Review
"Buckley (The Relic Master) has turned his quick wit and sharp writing focus on the 17th century in this 2nd book in his historical fiction series....Peppered with historical characters—Peter Stuyvesant, John Winthrop II—and cleverly using Samuel Pepys’ famous diaries, Buckley masterfully weaves a fictional story with historical fact....a rich story ripe for Buckley’s humor and pointed satire on Puritan ideals, royal peccadillos, and political intrigue. The Judge Hunter is an absorbing mystery/thriller with humorous dialog and characters that resonate and draw in the reader. Buckley’s ability to fuse fact with fiction makes this book a must for not just fans of historical fiction but anyone looking for a great read."
Bookish
"Christopher Buckley fans and newcomers to his work will delight in this humorous historical novel. "
Vanity Fair
"It’s murder and mirth in Christopher Buckley’s The Judge Hunter."
Washington Times
"[Buckley is] a roaringly funny writer of polished comic novels. It is no exaggeration to say that, today, he is one of the best American writers working the genre. [He], as always, has delivered a clever literary entertainment that manages to be both warm and wry."
The Weekly Standard
"Christopher Buckley’s style of satire has a peculiar bite: It nibbles, nibbles, nibbles—gently, even delightfully—before chomping down and leaving teeth marks as distinctive as any known to forensic science....The Judge Hunter is a brisk adventure....Buckley’s signature wordplay transposes well to 17th-century England and America, and anyone familiar with the real Pepys will take special pleasure in Buckley’s pitch-perfect fictional diary entries for him....the point of the thing is in the adventure and in the glimpses of a past that is distant but familiar, not only because of the names that still resonate three centuries on but because all the manners of stupidity and greed, intrigue and intrepidity he describes are still very much with us today."
Providence Journal
"[A] rollicking, raucous, murderous, deliciously funny historical novel....a marvelously suspenseful yarn....Buckley has a giddy time amid history and histrionics. The book’s a rush and a sheer delight, swift and scandalous, salty and sagacious, savvy and silly. And eminently enjoyable."
Washington Book Review
"The Judge Hunter is a captivating and witty new novel that combines adventure, comedy, political intrigue, and romance around real-life historical characters....Buckley has a razor-sharp wit....[a] brilliantly plotted historical novel that is extraordinarily entertaining. You will not stop laughing as you read it."
Washington Independent Review of Books
"Wildly satisfying and funny...The Judge Hunter is a satisfying romp through America in the 1600s."
National Review
"Buckley's wry wit is on display throughout....the characters and events of the period covered in The Judge Hunter offer a trove of material. While it's handled lightly, like any good historical fiction the book sparks the reader's interest in learning more about the events and people it touches on. Carefully researched and constructed with a wealth of authentic details, the novel succeeds in making a sometimes distant and stodgy-seeming era feel somehow contemporary."
National Review Online
Plenty of crackling good....Mr. Buckley is a so-very-talented writer (you should also pick up his previous novel, The Relic Master) of books smart and funny and historical, filled with wonderful characters. The court orders you to get a copy of The Judge Hunter.
MAY 2018 - AudioFile
Mixing English, American, Dutch, and French accents, James Langton has a wonderful time narrating this humorous and insightful historical novel. The story takes the listener from the intrigue of the Restoration court of Charles II in England to the deep woods and Puritan politics of the New World in the early 1660s. Celebrated diarist Samuel Pepys, a secretary of procurement in the King’s Navy, is being driven to distraction by his good-humored but utterly unemployable brother-in-law, Baltasar, so he sends “Balty” off on a couple of quick errands across the sea. What could go wrong? With unfailing cheerfulness, Langton take us on a friendly and altogether fascinating romp through some little-known early American history. B.P. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2018-03-05
The political humorist's second historical novel is a witty bromance about international intrigue and a hunt for two regicides in 17th-century New England.Buckley (The Relic Master, 2015, etc.) continues a series that began with his previous book's Baedeker through religious hypocrisy in 16th-century Europe and may have four more installments. Here, he moves to 17th-century New and Old England, jabbing at the Colonies' Puritan cant, London court intrigue, and libidos in high places. When Samuel Pepys in 1664 seeks a job for his feckless brother-in-law, Balthasar "Balty" de St. Michel, the effort rapidly becomes embroiled in secret plans to spark a war with Holland. Balty receives a royal commission to hunt down two of the judges who signed the death warrant for King Charles I and then fled to New England after Cromwell's demise. But Balty's aide-de-camp, a former militia commander named Hiram Huncks, uses the hunt as a cover for his efforts to rally Colonial forces when the British navy arrives to seize New Amsterdam. Balty is amusingly useless at nearly every turn, from seasickness on the Atlantic to tactless posturing among suspicious Colonial officials. Huncks, by contrast, is impressively resourceful and heroic—until Buckley cleverly flips roles and Balty must show his mettle. One subplot has Pepys cast into the Tower of London for peeping at private communiques. Another brings in a Quaker woman who must be rescued by the judge hunters from sadistic New Haven jurists. For those who nodded through classroom history, Buckley provides excellent summaries where needed during the tale and a two-page bibliography as well as asides on the five bastards Charles II had with Lady Castlemaine and their descendants (Diana Spencer, Sarah Ferguson).An entertaining and nicely crafted picaresque thriller with crackling dialogue and a brace of Colonial cops as appealingly mismatched as any of Hollywood's buddy efforts.