Blood on the Strand

By Susanna Gregory

Published Jan 2010

London 1663. Public London is executing plans to mark the third anniversary of the Restoration. Private London – murky, dangerous and seething with intrigue – is entertaining other plans. And other executions.

Like the death of wealthy merchant Matthew Webb, whose blood is spilled on the Strand one night, and the killing of an apparent vagrant during a royal procession. Intelligence agent Thomas Chaloner soon realises that both murders point in one direction: upwards, towards the great and supposedly good whose wily ploys seep from the sewers of Spitalfields to the palace of White Hall.

Blood on the Strand weaves a delightful, chilling, labyrinthine and always intriguing web around Restoration London, breathing life – both high and low – into the past.