The Shadows of London: The gripping new historical crime thriller from the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Royal Secret (James Marwood & Cat Lovett, Book 6)

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Enter the third wheel in our story, the mysterious Kage (aka Hollywood), a trigger-happy American, who keeps showing up to 'help' Dom on his latest case. And to tempt him in all the worst kind of ways too😈. Shadows of London" is the sixth book in the Ashes of London series, and continues the adventures of James Marwood and Catherine Hakesby. It's 1671 and Marwood is now in the full employ of Lord Arlington, as clerk and part-time spy. His star is still rising, but he seems uncomfortable with his new role. Catherine, with her now business partner Brennan, is beginning work on a large commission to build an alms-house and a street of luxury homes.

A time traveler ready to settle into a new home and a new reality is convinced to return to the past to prevent a gang murder.Set five years after the Great Fire in London, this is a good murder mystery. This is the first book I've read by the author and the sixth book in the series. The story is descriptively written. The characters are well rounded, and I felt as if I really knew them. The pace is fast. The story mixes fact with fiction perfectly. This book reads well as a standalone. When work commences on the alms-house, and a mutilated body is found in the work yard, thus halting work, Catherine is forced to call on her friend Marwood to try and speed up the investigation and so prevent her project from failing before it begins. And with that we are launched head-first into another fast-moving and intricately plotted tale in London in the years following the Great Fire.

This is one story with rapidly recurring bouts of violence where the victim actually feels the violence and has to recover before he can carry on. It's difficult to explain to your noble employer that you didn't make it in to the office because you were beaten unconscious in the street the night before. Somehow they don't seem to want to hear about it and when you do make it in there are inevitable raised eyebrows over the bruises, scars, and torn garments. The story was a bit confusing at first because of the magic-system, but after a few chapters you get the hang of it.

1. The School of Night

Which leads me to the other main element in the story – Charles II’s ruthless pursuit of a penniless young Frenchwoman half his age, aided and abetted by his own chief minister, the French ambassador and the King of France himself. The poor woman didn’t have a chance. There was no #MeToo movement to come to her defence. Unfortunately due to the condition of the body the victim cannot be identified. There are two possibilities in local men who have recently vanished: a French tutor connected to the almshouse’s owner and an employee of the Council of Foreign Plantations, who may have been involved in shady activities.