His third master is to be Dalton, employed as a clerk.īefore long Chaloner is embroiled with the Brotherhood.

This brings him into contact with Wade and Robinson who previously had assisted excavations in the Tower. This is the Lord Chancellor, Lord Clarendon, who also commissions him and his aide, the military man who fears the entire animal kingdom, Evett, in another search for the hidden gold of the Tower of London that was placed there by the regicide Barkstead. The first is Thurloe, the ex-Parliamentarian, with his sister Sarah and brother-in-law Dalton, who asks Chaloner to discover who murdered John Clarke, a spy he had recommended to Chaloner's second master. Very quickly, Chaloner finds himself serving three masters. So, Thomas Falconer, a.k.a Tom Heyden, disgraced clerk, recently returned from his career in Holland, desperately seeking a reference from the old Parliamentarian power, Thurloe, and finding himself immediately embroiled in a chase through the streets of Restoration London hunting the killers of a delivery boy, Storey and Snow, hired incompetent thugs of Kelyng, a fanatical royalist and hunter of regicides. Her Matthew Bartholomew Chronicles are a fine example of the medieval murder mystery and it is fair to say she ranks alongside Ellis Peters at the top of the genre. However, it is the familiar gripping plots, eloquent style and descriptive powers, taut narrative and fine characterization that remain. Pseudonymous Susanna Gregory finally takes the step of having a new character and a new setting.

The conspiracy of us book