Andrew Taylor

From the No.1 best-selling author of The American Boy and The Silent Boy comes a brand new historical thriller set during the time of the Great Fire of London. The first of an exciting new series of novels. London, September 1666. The Great Fire rages through the city, consuming everything in its path. Even the impregnable cathedral of St. Paul s is engulfed in flames and reduced to ruins. Among the crowds watching its destruction is Richard Marwood, son of a disgraced printer, and reluctant government informer. In the aftermath of the fire, a semi-mummified body is discovered in the ashes of St. Paul s, in a tomb that should have been empty. The man s body has been mutilated and his thumbs have been tied behind his back the sign of a Regicide, one of those who signed Charles I s death warrant. Under orders from the government, Marwood is tasked with hunting down the killer across the devastated city. But at a time of dangerous internal dissent and the threat of foreign invasion, Marwood finds his investigation leads him into treacherous waters and across the path of a determined, beautiful and vengeful young woman."

Ashes of London

Desperate to salvage her son's reputation, Lady Anne Oldershaw employs John Holdsworth, author of The Anatomy of Ghosts - a stinging account of why ghosts are mere delusion - to investigate. But his arrival in Cambridge disrupts an uneasy status quo as he glimpses a world of privilege and abuse, where the sinister Holy Ghost Club governs life at Jerusalem more effectively than the Master, Dr Carbury, ever could.

The Anatomy of Ghosts

From the No.1 bestselling author of The Ashes of London and The Fire Court comes the next book in the phenomenally successful series following James Marwood. A royal scandal that could change the face of England forever... London 1667. In the Court of Charles II, it's a dangerous time to be alive - a wrong move may lead to disgrace, exile or death. The discovery of a body at Clarendon House, the palatial home of one of the highest courtiers in the land, could therefore have catastrophic consequences. James Marwood, a traitor's son, is ordered to cover up the murder. But the dead man is Edward Alderley, the cousin of one of Marwood's acquaintances. Cat Lovett had every reason to want her cousin dead. Since his murder, she has vanished, and all the evidence points to her as the killer. Marwood is determined to clear Cat's name and discover who really killed Alderley. But time is running out for everyone. If he makes a mistake, it could threaten not only the government but the King himself...

The King's Evil

From No.1 bestselling author Andrew Taylor comes the sequel to the phenomenally successful The Ashes of London

The Fire Court (James Marwood & Cat Lovett, Book 2)

From the No.1 bestselling author of The Last Protector and The Ashes of London comes the next book in the phenomenally successful series following James Marwood and Cat Lovett during the time of King Charles II. Two young girls plot a murder by witchcraft. Soon afterwards a government clerk dies painfully in mysterious circumstances. His colleague James Marwood is asked to investigate - but the task brings unexpected dangers. Meanwhile, architect Cat Hakesby is working for a merchant who lives on Slaughter Street, where the air smells of blood and a captive Barbary lion prowls the stables. Then a prestigious new commission arrives. Cat must design a Poultry House for the woman that the King loves most in all the world. Unbeknownst to all, at the heart of this lies a royal secret so explosive that it could not only rip apart England but change the entire face of Europe...

The Royal Secret

From the No. 1 bestselling author of The American Boy comes a brilliant new historical thriller set during the French Revolution. Selected as Historical Novel of the Year by The Times and Sunday Times, and picked as one of Radio 4's Crime Books of the Year. Paris, 1792. Terror reigns as the city writhes in the grip of revolution. The streets run with blood as thousands lose their heads to the guillotine. Edward Savill, working in London as agent for a wealthy American, receives word that his estranged wife Augusta has been killed in France. She leaves behind ten-year-old Charles, who is brought to England to Charnwood Court, a house in the country leased by a group of emigre refugees. Savill is sent to retrieve the boy, though it proves easier to reach Charnwood than to leave. And only when Savill arrives there does he discover that Charles is mute. The boy has witnessed horrors beyond his years, but what terrible secret haunts him so deeply that he is unable to utter a word?

The Silent Boy

'If Phillippa Penhow hadn't gone to Bleeding Heart Square on that January day, you and perhaps everyone else may have lived happily ever after...' It's 1934, and the decaying London cul-de-sac of Bleeding Heart Square is an unlikely place of refuge for aristocratic Lydia Langstone. But as she flees her abusive marriage there is only one person she can turn to - the genteelly derelict Captain Ingleby-Lewis, currently lodging at no. 7. However, unknown to Lydia, a dark mystery haunts 7 Bleeding Heart Square. What happened to Miss Penhow, the middle-aged spinster who owns the house and who vanished four years earlier? Why is a seedy plain-clothes policeman obsessively watching the square? What is making struggling journalist Rory Wentwood so desperate to contact Miss Penhow? And why are parcels of rotting hearts being sent to Jospeh Serrige, the last person to see Miss Penhow alive...? Legend has it the Devil once danced in Bleeding Heart Square - but is there now a new and sinister presence lurking in its shadows?

Bleeding Heart Square

From the No.1 Sunday Times bestselling author of The Ashes of London comes the next book in the phenomenally successful series following James Marwood and Cat Lovett.

The Last Protector

The No. 1 bestseller and award-winning Richard & Judy Book Club pick. An atmospheric and deeply absorbing literary historical crime classic - featured in The Times 'Top Ten Crime Novels of the Decade'. England 1819: Thomas Shield, a new master at a school just outside London, is tutor to a young American boy and the child's sensitive best friend, Charles Frant. Helplessly drawn to Frant's beautiful, unhappy mother, Thomas becomes entwined in their family's affairs. When a brutal murder takes place in London's seedy backstreets, it is not certain who either the victim or the killer is. But all clues seem to lead back to the Frant household, and Shield is tangled in a web of lies, money, sex and death that threatens to tear his new life apart. And what of the strange American boy at the heart of these macabre events - what is the dark secret of young Edgar Allan Poe?

The American Boy

In August 1778 British-occupied Manhattan, Edward Savill, a London clerk from the American Department, must investigate the claims of dispossessed loyalists caught on the wrong side of the American War of Independence, and soon finds himself dealing witha murder.

The Scent of Death

The first book in the No. 1 Times bestselling series ‘This is terrific stuff’ Daily Telegraph ‘A breathtakingly ambitious picture of an era’ Financial Times ‘A masterclass in how to weave a well-researched history into a complex plot’ The Times

The Ashes of London (James Marwood & Cat Lovett, Book 1)

A Schooling in Murder

Août 1778, à New York, un gentilhomme est poignardé en pleine rue. La victime est un officier amateur de jeux de hasard. Dans une ville en construction, melting-pot de soldats, de traîtres et de rebelles, la justice est sommaire et expéditive. Un vagabond est donc arrêté et pendu. Mais l'homme de loi Edward Savill, trouve qu’on est allé un peu vite en besogne. Il s'interroge sur les liens entre la victime, le vieux Juge Wintour, sa femme malade et leur énigmatique fille. Ce que cette famille a perdu en richesse, elle semble l'avoir gagné en secrets. Dans cette nouvelle Amérique au parfum de mort, tout s'achète et tout se vend. Même l'honneur et la respectabilité... Un grand thriller historique, lauréat du prestigieux prix Ellis Peters Dagger.

Un parfum de mort

Over 1 Million Andrew Taylor Novels Sold! ‘An absolute delight in a series that goes from strength to strength’ S. G. McLean, prize-winning author of the Seeker series ‘This is Taylor at his unassailable best’ Financial Times London 1671 The damage caused by the Great Fire still overshadows the capital. When a man’s brutally disfigured body is discovered in the ruins of an ancient almshouse, architect Cat Hakesby is ordered to stop restoration work. It is obvious he has been murdered, and Whitehall secretary James Marwood is ordered to investigate. It’s possible the victim could be one of two local men who have vanished – the first, a feckless French tutor connected to the almshouse’s owner; the second, a possibly treacherous employee of the Council of Foreign Plantations. The pressure on Marwood mounts as Charles II’s most influential courtiers, Lord Arlington and the Duke of Buckingham, show an interest in his activities – and Marwood soon begins to suspect the murder trail may lead right to the heart of government. Meanwhile, a young, impoverished Frenchwoman has caught the eye of the king, a quiet affair that will have monumental consequences...

The Shadows of London (James Marwood & Cat Lovett, Book 6)

Second Midnight

The Ashes of London (James Marwood and Cat Lovett, Book 1)

Contains profiles of fifty of history's most important and influential books, as selected by journalist and author Andrew Taylor, each with a summary of the contents, and a discussion of its historical context and legacy.

the 50 most influential books in human history

Books that changed the world

From the No.1 bestselling author of The Last Protector and The Ashes of London comes the next book in the phenomenally successful series following James Marwood and Cat Lovett during the time of King Charles II.

Andrew Taylor

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