Awards

• Long-listed for Historical Dagger 2024 (UK)
• Short-listed for CWA Historical Dagger 2024 (UK)

Overview

'A wonderful and compelling murder mystery' - LOUISE FEIN 'A brilliantly entertaining historical crime' - PHILIPPA EAST 'An elegant, richly detailed, historical joy' - KATE GRIFFIN 1796. A rigged election. A town at war. a murderer at large... Disgraced former Foreign Office clerk Laurence Jago and his larger-than-life employer the journalist William Philpott have escaped America - and Philpott's near imprisonment for libel - by the skin of their teeth. They return to Laurence's home town of Helston, Cornwall, in the hope of rest and recuperation, but instead find themselves in the middle of a tumultuous election that has the inhabitants of the town at one another's throats. Only two men may vote in this rotten borough, and when one of them dies in suspicious circumstances, Laurence is ordered to investigate on behalf of the town's patron, his old master the Duke of Leeds. But it is no easy matter, thanks to the machinations of the rival political factions, not to mention the riotous performances of Toby the Sapient Hog. Then the second elector is poisoned and suspicion turns on the town doctor, the gentle Pythagoras Jago, Laurence's own cousin. Suddenly Laurence finds himself ensnared in generations of bad blood and petty rivalries, with his cousin's fate in his hands... The new page-turning historical mystery from the author of Black Drop, a 2021 Times Book of the Year, and Blue Water, a Waterstones Thriller of the Month. Perfect for readers of Andrew Taylor, Laura Shepherd-Robinson and S.J. Parris.

Full Product Details

9781800816961

Table of Contents

Reviews

PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR Filled with memorable characters... first-class entertainment * Sunday Times * A joy from start to finish. Jago is a very sympathetic hero... and Philpott made me want to cheer -- Andrew Taylor Weaves the complex politics of 18th-century Britain into a gripping murder mystery * The Times * Artful and authentic historical fiction at its best -- A.J. West Fabulous... A delight. Nattrass again and again had me wondering at her skill and marvellous turn of phrase in filtering complex eighteenth-century history in a way that resonates with our own times -- S.G. MacLean

PRAISE FOR THE AUTHOR 'Filled with memorable characters... first-class entertainment * Sunday Times * A joy from start to finish. Jago is a very sympathetic hero... and Philpott made me want to cheer -- Andrew Taylor Weaves the complex politics of 18th-century Britain into a gripping murder mystery * The Times * Artful and authentic historical fiction at its best -- A.J. West Fabulous... A delight. Nattrass again and again had me wondering at her skill and marvellous turn of phrase in filtering complex eighteenth-century history in a way that resonates with our own times -- S.G. MacLean

'This gets my vote! Jane Austen meets Agatha Christie in this cleverly plotted tale of courtship, poison, and electoral shenanigans. The characters and their dialogue, as ever with Leonora Nattrass, are wonderfully witty' - Robert J. Lloyd, author of THE BLOODLESS BOY 'A murderous delight of poisoning, fire, a rigged election and a psychic pig! It's a first rate murder mystery set in a brilliantly drawn historic setting' - Guy Morpuss, author of FIVE MINDS 'I so enjoyed the latest adventures of Laurence Jago in this captivating story of political intrigue, mystery and murder. Fast paced and full of unexpected twists and turns, I was thoroughly swept along with our seemingly hapless hero amidst the turmoil of election fever in Helston town. Nattrass expertly guides her readers through the shockingly undemocratic complexities of the rotten borough elections, whilst at the same time spinning a wonderful and compelling murder mystery' - Louise Fein, author of PEOPLE LIKE US 'I can't get enough of Nattrass's Laurence Jago series, and Scarlet Town is another fantastic instalment! With a setting and characters that leap off the page, Scarlet Town is an immersive and delightful read that I absolutely whizzed through. A brilliantly entertaining historical crime caper - I loved it' - Philippa East, author of LITTLE WHITE LIES 'An elegant, richly detailed, historical joy! Wonderful to be reunited with diffident 'hero' Laurence Jago, his green spectacles and his slyly amusing commentary' - Kate Griffin, author of FYNESHADE

Author Information

Leonora Nattrass studied eighteenth-century literature and politics, and spent ten years lecturing in English and publishing works on William Cobbett. She lives in Cornwall, in a seventeenth-century house with seventeenth-century draughts, and spins the fleeces of her Ryeland sheep into yarn. Her first novel, Black Drop, was published in 2021, and was a Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month. Her second, Blue Water, was published in 2022. Find her on Twitter @LeonoraNattrass

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