Jacket for 'The Piccadilly Plot'

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UK - Little Brown

The Piccadilly Plot

By Susanna Gregory

Published Jan 2012

Thomas Chaloner is relieved to be summoned back to London from Tangier, where his master, the Earl of Clarendon, has sent him to investigate a case of corruption. Chaloner is glad to be home, to be reunited with his new wife, though the trivial reason for his recall exasperates him – the theft of material from the construction site of Clarendon’s sumptuous new house just north of Piccadilly.

But within hours of his return, Chaloner is thrust into extra investigations involving threats of assassination, a stolen corpse and a scheme to frame the Queen for treason. And there are connections between them all which thread through the unfinished Clarendon House.

These connections make Chaloner realise that the violence, intrigue and corruption he has witnessed on the north African coast has its roots in the heart of the capital’s establishment: courtiers vying for a share of the vast wealth to be had from trading overseas. Determined to belong to the most profitable syndicate, they will stop at nothing to deter those who dare to undermine their ambitions.

Pungent with historical detail.

Irish Times