The Butcher Of Smithfield, Susanna Gregory
The Butcher Of Smithfield, Susanna Gregory
List: $24.99 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.49

The Butcher Of Smithfield
3

Author: Susanna Gregory

Narrator: Gordon Griffin

Unabridged: 15 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/25/2021


Synopsis

Susanna Gregory, author of the Matthew Bartholomew series of medieval mysteries, has created another compelling fictional detective set in Restoration London.

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The third adventure in the Thomas Chaloner series.

Having just returned from a clandestine excursion to Spain and Portugal on behalf of the Queen, Thomas Chaloner finds London dank and grey under leaden skies. He finds many things changed, including the Government slapping a tax on printed newspapers. Handwritten news reports escape the duty, and the rivalry between the producers of the two conduits of news is the talk of the coffee houses with the battle to be first with any sort of intelligence escalating into violent rivalry. And it seems that a number of citizens who have eaten cucumbers have come to untimely deaths.

It is such a death which Chaloner is despatched to investigate; that of a lawyer with links to 'the Butcher of Smithfield', a shady trader surrounded by a fearsome gang of thugs who terrorise the streets well beyond the confines of Smithfield market. Chaloner doesn't believe that either this death or the others are caused by a simple vegetable, but to prove his theory he has to untangle the devious means of how news is gathered and he has to put his personal safety aside as he tries to penetrate the rumour mill surrounding the Butcher of Smithfield and discover his real identity.

'Pungent with historical detail' (Irish Times)

'A richly imagined world of colourful medieval society and irresistible monkish sleuthing' (Good Book Guide)

'Corpses a-plenty, exciting action sequences and a satisfying ending' (Mystery People)

About Susanna Gregory

Susanna Gregory was a police officer in Leeds before taking up an academic career. She has served as an environmental consultant, worked eighteen field seasons in the polar regions, and has taught comparative anatomy and biological anthropology.She is the creator of the Matthew Bartholomew series of mysteries set in medieval Cambridge and the Thomas Chaloner adventures in Restoration London. She now lives in Wales with her husband, who is also a writer.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Clemens

Read this book in 2011, and its the 3rd volume of the captivating "Thomas Chaloner" series. This tale is set in late October in the year AD 1663, and Thomas Chaloner after having returned from a clandestine excursion on behalf on the Queen to Spain and Portugal, finds London in dank and grey skies. Wh......more

‘He died of eating cucumbers.’ London, 1663. It is summer, and Thomas Chaloner has recently returned to London after a mission to Portugal and Spain. He may have only been away for four months, but a lot has changed. A tax has been introduced on printed newssheets which has led to the growth of handw......more

Goodreads review by Gill

Susanna Gregory's books are always good. I enjoy this Thomas Chaloner series because it's set in London, and I know a lot of the buildings and streets mentioned, so can picture it, albeit centuries later. This one had a good plot, but too many people for my taste. I had to keep going back to find ou......more

Goodreads review by Susan

1663 Thomas Chaloner has returned to England but his paymaster the Earl of Clarendon has a job for him. To investigate the death of newsbook minion and solicitor Thomas Newburne, presumed dead by eating cucumbers. Soon Chaloner uncovers more deaths but what is the motive, by what means and who is be......more