As the Great Fire burns the heart of London in 1666, political manipulators and religious fundamentalists struggle behind the scenes for control of the kingdom.

Andrew Taylor grew up in East Anglia. He read English at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and has an MA in Library, Archive and Information Science from University College London. Forget about solving all these crimes; the signal triumph here is (spoiler) the heroine’s survival. This is terrific stuff: intelligent, engrossing and, in its evocation of a long-vanished London, wonderfully plausible.' Toby Clements, Daily Telegraph

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The TMS team will again by led by Jonathan Agnew for the men's Ashes, with Isa Guha, Simon Mann, Alison Mitchell, Daniel Norcross and Jim Maxwell also joining as commentators. The American Boy, a gothic mystery linked to Edgar Allan Poe's boyhood years in England, was one of the ten titles featured in Channel 4's Richard and Judy Book Club 2005 and was also selected for The Times Top Ten Crime Novels of the Decade. A masterclass in how to weave a well-researched history into a complex plot’ The Times Over 1 Million Andrew Taylor Novels Sold! With Charles I beheaded and Oliver Cromwell in his grave, King Charles II has claimed the throne. Now his reign is threatened by unrepentant republicans, the most radical being the Fifth Monarchists who want a Puritan theocracy with King Jesus as ruler. Trapped in these shenanigans are Catherine “Cat” Lovett, whose father fought against Charles I, and James Marwood, whose father, now pardoned, followed Cromwell. While seeking her father in the aftermath of the fire, Cat lives with her Alderley cousins, who resent and exploit her. Meantime Marwood has been extorted into working for Whitehall by a shadowy figure he knows as Williamson, a man who apparently has significant influence with the king, Privy Council, and Common Council. Williamson demands Marwood find Cat’s father, still a threat. Soon Cat and Marwood find themselves in danger. Taylor's ( The Silent Boy, 2015, etc.) characterizations are distinctive, with Marwood cautious, constantly worried his physically weak and senile father will be returned to prison; and Cat fascinated by architecture, pushing against social barriers to become assistant to Master Hakesby, an artist rendering Christopher Wren’s plans to rebuild St. Paul’s Cathedral. Taylor is marvelous at replicating a historical world that might otherwise be relegated to dusty history books, especially through his renditions of the era’s arch speech and his approach to class and status. Additionally, when a character remarks after an assault that “it was well known that young women were lascivious creatures,” Taylor again shows his talent for adding depth by weaving in examples of the historical subjugation and oppression of women. It’s worth noting that these fascinating minutiae interlaced into the narrative have no negative effect on focus or pace. 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.

What did Samuel Pepys bury in his garden as the Great Fire of London blazed towards his home? The answer, one that all self-respecting pub quiz bores know, is a wheel of parmesan cheese. Sam Pepys truly is this country’s first middle-class hero. Story Behind The Scent of Death". Upcoming4.me. 18 October 2013. Archived from the original on 20 October 2013 . Retrieved 18 October 2013. My goodness I enjoyed The Ashes of London. It opens dramatically and continues with a fast, sometimes brutal, pace that makes the plot fly past right up to the exciting end. I was entirely entranced by Andrew Taylor’s writing. His style is accessible and yet authentic for the era with direct speech especially well attuned to convey class, social standing and gender.We meet another character Cat, she has dreams and passions for the future but she is a young lady with intelligence and desire. But now she is in dire trouble and her life is in peril. She has no choice but to run. Even if you've read Pepys on the Great Fire you don't get as vivid a portrait as Taylor gives in this novel. The heat, the winds, the burning embers, the almost spontaneous flaming and the fact that it went on for months after the main fire was subdued are all vividly portrayed in this novel, which is apparently the first in a series. The Ashes of London presents a breathtakingly ambitious picture of an era ... the multiple narrative strands are drawn together in a brilliantly orchestrated finale' Financial Times We meet Catherine Lovett, daughter of a regicide, who resides with her uncle's family--the prominent merchant. Marwood is now the centre of the story, his elderly father was a supporter of Cromwell and the civil war that saw the execution of Charles I. Marwood has a role albeit a rather junior role within Whitehall but here Marwood seems to spend a lot of time hiding information from his peers. But now a body has been found in the ruins of the cathedral and Marwood has been called in to look at the body but the man did not die in the fire. This was murder. Was the body left there so the fire would conceal the truth?

He has won many awards, including the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger, an Edgar Scroll from the Mystery Writers of America, the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Award (the only author to win it three times) and the CWA's prestigious Diamond Dagger, awarded for sustained excellence in crime writing. He also writes for the Spectator. People in the 1600s did think differently to the way we generally do and Taylor puts in the different factors: fear of negative opinions of the aristocracy, distrust of those whom you don't know, a total inability to defend oneself against an employer, caution where different political or religious opinions might obtain and fear of long term dangers. You can feel the need to fear most people, most events, and anything out of the regular. Add something like this incredible fire and the destruction it caused and it would not be surprising if there were a number of strokes and other collapses during those last months of 1666. Catherine’s story is told almost entirely in the third person, which I thought rather a shame. She is the stronger and more ambiguous character, surprisingly modern in both outlook and reaction to adversity. More like The Ashes of London: The first book in the brilliant historical crime mystery series from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author (James Marwood & Cat Lovett, Book 1) Most of the characters try to think ahead and calculate how a recent bit of information could affect their situation, but of course they miscalculate and you want to yell at them, especially Catherine whose first reaction to anything bad is to run as far and fast as she can.

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The Great Fire is key to the latest work from Andrew Taylor. As crowds gather to watch St Pauls burning to the ground a young boy breaks through the crowd and wants to run into the burning cathedral as if he is being pulled into the flames but a young man manages to grab the boy at the last moment his name is James Marwood. The boy however is not a boy but a young girl. But before he can find out more she flees from Marwoods grasp and disappears into the crowd of people.

Another sweltering month in Charlotte, another boatload of mysteries past and present for overworked, overstressed forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. London, the night of the Great Fire. Its just years after Cromwell and King Charles II is on the throne. The author makes it come alive- the smell of ashes, river, and blood, the still burning fire, burnt neighborhoods, the heavy smog, and the uneasy peace post Restoration. Add in a mystery, well, mysteries, and this was like a time traveler's adventure.

Summary

Andrew Taylor (born 14 October 1951) is a British author best known for his crime and historical novels, which include the Lydmouth series, the Roth Trilogy and historical novels such as the number-one best-selling The American Boy and The Ashes of London. His accolades include the Diamond Dagger, Britain's top crime-writing award. Recent crime fiction". The Spectator. 311 (9446): 36–37. 12 September 2009. Archived from the original on 22 September 2009 . Retrieved 20 June 2011. I really enjoyed this book and was fascinated by the politics and history of the period. I look forward to reading the sequel. Andrew Taylor (b. 1951) is a British author of mysteries. Born in East Anglia, he attended university at Cambridge before getting an MA in library sciences from University College London. His first novel, Caroline Miniscule (1982), a modern-day treasure hunt starring history student William Dougal, began an eight-book series and won Taylor wide critical acclaim. He has written several other thriller series, most notably the eight Lydmouthbooks, which begin with An Air That Kills (1994).