The Cheapside Corpse

Download or read book The Cheapside Corpse written by Susanna Gregory and published by Sphere. This book was released on 2015-01-08 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Another excellent historical adventure from Susanna Gregory featuring 17th-century spy Thomas Chaloner ------------------------ London in the spring of 1665 is a city full of fear. There is plague in the stews of St Giles, the Dutch fleet is preparing to invade, and a banking crisis threatens to leave Charles II's government with no means of paying for the nation's defence. Amid the tension, Thomas Chaloner is ordered to investigate the murder of Dick Wheler, one of the few goldsmith-bankers to have survived the losses that have driven others to bankruptcy - or worse. At the same time, a French spy staggers across the city, carrying the plague from one parish to another. Chaloner's foray into the world of the financiers who live in and around Cheapside quickly convinces him that they are just as great a threat as the Dutch, but their power and greed thwart him at every turn. Meanwhile, the plague continues to spread across the city, and the body count from the disease and from the fever of avarice starts to rise alarmingly . . .

Download or read book Murder on High Holborn written by Susanna Gregory and published by Sphere. This book was released on 2014-01-02 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Once again, Gregory brings to bear her extraordinary ability to paint a period picture of London in all its grimness and grittiness. Hats off to the lady! - Daily Mail --------------------------- The ninth adventure for Chaloner sees the Restoration London spy foil a conspiracy In 1665 England is facing war with the Dutch and the capital is awash with rumours of conspiracy and sedition. As an experienced investigator, Thomas Chaloner knows that there are very few grains of truth in the shifting sands of the rumour-mill, but the murder of Paul Ferine, a Groom of the Robes, in a brothel favoured by the elite of the Palace of White Hall makes him scent a whiff of genuine treason. As well as investigating the murder, Chaloner is charged with tracking down the leaders of a fanatical sect known as the Fifth Monarchists. As he comes to know more about the group and their meetings on High Holborn, he discovers a puzzling number of connections - to both Ferine's murder and those involved with the defence of the realm. Connections that he must disentangle before it is too late to save the country . . .

Download or read book A Conspiracy Of Violence written by Susanna Gregory and published by Sphere. This book was released on 2010-12-02 with total page 367 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Susanna Gregory, author of the Matthew Bartholomew series of medieval mysteries, has created another compelling fictional detective set in Restoration London. -------------------------------------------- The first adventure in the Thomas Chaloner series. The dour days of Cromwell are over. Charles II is well established at White Hall Palace, his mistress at hand in rooms over the Holbein bridge, the heads of some of the regicides on public display. London seethes with new energy, freed from the strictures of the Protectorate, but many of its inhabitants have lost their livelihoods. One is Thomas Chaloner, a reluctant spy for the feared Secretary of State, John Thurloe, and now returned from Holland in desperate need of employment. His erstwhile boss, knowing he has many enemies at court, recommends Thomas to Lord Clarendon, but in return demands that Thomas keep him informed of any plot against him. But what Thomas discovers is that Thurloe had sent another ex-employee to White Hall and he is dead, supposedly murdered by footpads near the Thames. Chaloner volunteers to investigate his killing: instead he is dispatched to the Tower to unearth the gold buried by the last Governor. He discovers not treasure, but evidence that greed and self-interest are uppermost in men's minds whoever is in power, and that his life has no value to either side. 'Pungent with historical detail' (Irish Times) 'A richly imagined world of colourful medieval society and irresistible monkish sleuthing' (Good Book Guide) 'Corpses a-plenty, exciting action sequences and a satisfying ending' (Mystery People)

Download or read book The Chelsea Strangler written by Susanna Gregory and published by Sphere. This book was released on 2016-01-14 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The eleventh historical adventure from Susanna Gregory featuring 17th-century spy Thomas Chaloner In the sapping summer heat of 1665 there is little celebration in London of the naval victory at the Battle of Lowestoft. The King, his retinue and anyone with sufficient means has fled the plague-ridden city, its half-deserted streets echoing to the sound of bells tolling the mounting number of deaths. Those who remain clutch doubtful potions to ward off the relentless disease and dart nervously past shuttered buildings, watchful for the thieves who risk their lives to plunder what has been left behind. At Chelsea, a rural backwater by the river, with fine mansions leased to minor members of the Court avoiding the capital, there are more immediate concerns: the government has commandeered the theological college to house Dutch prisoners of war and there are daily rumours that those sailors are on the brink of escaping. Moreover, a vicious strangler is stalking the neighbourhood. Thomas Chaloner is sent to investigate the murder of the first victim, an inmate of a private sanatorium known as Gorges. There have been thefts there as well, but the few facts he gleans from inmates and staff are contradictory and elusive. He realises, though, that Gorges has stronger links to the prison than just proximity, and that the influx of strangers offers plenty of camouflage for a killer - a killer who has no compunction about turning on those determined to stop his murderous rampage.

Download or read book Death in St James's Park written by Susanna Gregory and published by Sphere. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Superspy of Restoration London, Thomas Chaloner foils an uprising in his eighth outing ------------------------------------- Five years after Charles II's triumphant return to London there is growing mistrust of his extravagant court and of corruption among his officials - and when a cart laden with gunpowder explodes outside the General Letter Office, it is immediately clear that such an act is more than an expression of outrage at the inefficiency of the postal service. As intelligencer to the Lord Chamberlain, Thomas Chaloner cannot understand why a man of known incompetence is put in charge of investigating the attack while he is diverted to make enquiries about the poisoning of birds in the King's aviary in St James's Park. Then human rather than avian victims are poisoned, and Chaloner knows he has to ignore his master's instructions and use his own considerable wits to defeat an enemy whose deadly tentacles reach into the very heart of the government: an enemy who has the power and expertise to destroy anyone who stands in the way ...

Download or read book Bloody Jack written by Louis A. Meyer and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2002 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "While disguised as a boy, Jacky Faber experiences adventure and romance on the high seas"--

Download or read book The Chancellor's Secret written by Susanna Gregory and published by Sphere. This book was released on 2021-08-05 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1360, the Great Bridge over the River Cam is close to collapse. To repair it will cost the town and the University dear, especially if its rotten wood is replaced by more durable stone. As arguments rage over raising the money other, equally heated, differences are coming to the boil over the election of a new Chancellor. While the majority support Brother Michael for the post, at least one of his opponents aims to seize it by fair means or foul. Then the discovery of a body under the bridge and the disappearance of two scholars throws a more sinister shadow over both disputes. Matthew Bartholomew, the University's Corpse Examiner, already has his hands full: due to marry in under a fortnight, he is determined to conclude his teaching duties and deal with an outbreak of the summer flux before relinquishing his official duties. With more deaths, an 'accident' at the bridge and an increasing stench of corruption over the financing of the bridge's repairs, he realises he owes more to his soon-to-be former colleagues than to his future life as a secular doctor. But will there be enough time for him to unveil the identities of those who seek to undermine both the town and the University, or will he prove powerless to protect those he loves from death or disgrace or worse?