The Cheapside Corpse
The Tenth Thomas Chaloner Adventure
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5.0 • 3 Ratings
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Another excellent historical adventure from Susanna Gregory featuring 17th-century spy Thomas Chaloner
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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 . . .
Customer Reviews
Well this one was exciting!
I am a long-term fan of Susanna Gregory and both of her medieval mystery series - Matthew Bartholomew and Thomas Chaloner. This one is the tenth in the Chaloner series, and it is a good one. For those afficionados of medieval mystery and suspense stories, you will know that although bloody, the pace is a mite slower than with more modern settings for mystery series. After all, things didn't move all that quickly in 1665, when this book was set. But this one is different than even other Chaloner books. The pace is relentless and the mysteries complex. Thomas finds himself in big trouble again working for his capricious Earl. How hard can it be to find out why a drapery order is short two sets of draperies? Well, that's Susanna Gregory for you. From that inauspicious beginning, she has Thomas running around in Cheapside and mingling with some very dangerous people. As in all her other books, she weaves a story out of actual historical people and events. Thomas Chaloner himself is a wonderful creation. He's been around the block and back with danger and espionage all of his life. He's adaptable and quick on his feet, and he manages, one way or another, to always get his man. And we, the readers, are along for the ride with him. Love Thomas Chaloner and I love this series. This is one of the best books in this series to my way of thinking.