The Devil in the Marshalsea
Thomas Hawkins Book 1
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4.5 • 92 Ratings
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
WINNER OF THE CWA HISTORICAL DAGGER AWARD 2014.
Longlisted for the John Creasey Dagger Award for best debut crime novel of 2014.
London, 1727 - and Tom Hawkins is about to fall from his heaven of card games, brothels and coffee-houses into the hell of a debtors' prison.
The Marshalsea is a savage world of its own, with simple rules: those with family or friends who can lend them a little money may survive in relative comfort. Those with none will starve in squalor and disease. And those who try to escape will suffer a gruesome fate at the hands of the gaol's rutheless governor and his cronies.
The trouble is, Tom Hawkins has never been good at following rules - even simple ones. And the recent grisly murder of a debtor, Captain Roberts, has brought further terror to the gaol. While the Captain's beautiful widow cries for justice, the finger of suspicion points only one way: to the sly, enigmatic figure of Samuel Fleet.
Some call Fleet a devil, a man to avoid at all costs. But Tom Hawkins is sharing his cell. Soon, Tom's choice is clear: get to the truth of the murder - or be the next to die.
A twisting mystery, a dazzling evocation of early 18th Century London, THE DEVIL IN THE MARSHALSEA is a thrilling debut novel full of intrigue and suspense.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Dickens might have dreamt up The Devil in the Marshalsea, a thrilling murder mystery set in 1720s London. Hero Tom Hawkins is a loveable rogue who’s doing time in an infamous debtors’ jail when he gets caught up in a murder investigation. Debut novelist Antonia Hodgson paints gorgeously filmic scenes, from the derelict streets around St Giles to the clatter of Covent Garden’s coffeehouses. Historical fiction doesn’t get more gripping than this—we can't wait to read book 2.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Hodgson, the editor-in-chief of Little, Brown U.K., conjures up scenes of Dickensian squalor and marries them to a crackerjack plot, in her impressive first novel, set in 1727. Tom Hawkins, the 25-year-old wastrel son of an English minister, has the misfortune to land in London's hellish debtors' prison, the Marshalsea Gaol. With his life and sanity at stake, Hawkins seizes a possibility for a reprieve. Shortly before his entry to the Marshalsea, the hanging death of another prisoner, Capt. John Roberts, was ruled a suicide. Roberts's widow believes otherwise, and with reports of the captain's ghost haunting the jail, the authorities hope that Hawkins will conduct an independent investigation that they can use to calm the inmates. Hodgson makes the stench, as well as the despair, almost palpable, besides expertly dropping fair clues. Fans of Iain Pears and Charles Palliser will hope for a sequel.
Customer Reviews
A great read!
This book was totally different to anything else I have ever read. I really enjoyed the historical aspects and the gripping "whodunnit". Fantastic - download it now, brew up a cuppa and enjoy!
The Devil in the Marshalsea
Beautifully crafted book evoking all the sights, sounds and smells of London as they must have been in that era. Looking forward to reading the sequel...