Halloween Bingo 2023
London during and after the Great Fire of 1666. Dangerous, dirty, destroyed. James Marwood watches the fire when he should be headed to work at Whitehall. He rescues a small person who he initially assumes to be a boy, but turns out to be a girl in disguise. She seizes his cloak, bites his hand to get him to let go, and flees into the crowd.
Catherine Lovett is the daughter of a Regicide, one of the men who supported Oliver Cromwell. It is she who bit James Marwood. She is living with an uncle and aunt in London while her father is in exile, but it becomes obvious that this arrangement is reaching its end. She is forced to rely on the network of her father's former associates, various nebulous alliances.
Marwood’s life is not entirely his own. His father, another Regicide, has been released from prison, but has dementia with a tendency to both wander and babble. The older man requires care which his son cannot provide. James is indebted to his employer(s) and is set the task of solving a set of murders all done in the same way. His path and that of Cat Lovett continue to cross, intriguing him and worrying her.
It took 62 pages for the first body to be found. I was starting to wonder if this was a book for me. (Have I mentioned how short my attention span had become since Covid started?) But at that point, the plot picks up speed and complexity, keeping me reading steadily. Not a book that I will ever likely reread, but I'm not sorry that I read it.
I read this to match the Darkest London square on my bingo card.
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