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

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This was an interesting historical mystery/thriller set during the Restoration Era or more specifically in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London. The setting was really good, and so was the description of the region and area. Fans of the novel found that there is a hero that is a likable guy, interesting supporting characters, and great ending that has a twist to it. The story is simply brilliant, you will be moved along as one thing leads to another, to the very end. You will be up all night reading and reading the novel, trying to see what happens next. Some found that these books are better than the novels that Taylor is known for writing later on in his career. 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. An Old School Tie” is the fourth novel in the “Dougal” series and was released in the year 1986. James Hanbury has reformed himself. Or he would like to. He plans to marry a respectable bride, hoping that he will be respectable by extension. This is due to the fact that his bride, Molly, comes from both money and a good family. The day they return from their honeymoon, she is electrocuted. So the question remains, was it murder or was it an accident? Charleston Parva’s residents believe that it was murder, and accuse James of killing her as soon as he got her money. Feelings in the village soon grow tense. Hansbury turns to Dougal (his old friend and rival) for help, but Dougal is not even close to being convinced the guy is innocent. Dougal knows better than anyone that he is capable of murder. Our Fathers’s Lies” is the third novel in the “Dougal” series and was released in the year 1985. There is some unfinished business that Dougal and his father have that they have to sort out. It has a little to do with Celia Prentisse, who is William’s ex-girlfriend. Her father, a historian, is found drowned and the whole thing is called a suicide. Celia does not buy it for a minute, because his clothes (which he abandoned) were found with a brand of gin he did not drink, and a short volume of Schopenhauer’s essays. That really is not a lot to go off of, but it is enough to send his father (and her godfather) British intelligence officer Major Ted Dougal, who is retired and William off on the case. They find an arsenic poisoning that happened in the 1930s and a court martial that is still classified from World War One.

The Ashes of London - Historical Novel Society

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.Thrilling... Gripping, fast-moving and credible... It's a well-constructed political thriller with moments of horror, admirable and enjoyable. Taylor has done his research so thoroughly as to be unobtrusive' Spectator

The Ashes of London- free sampler by Andrew Taylor | Goodreads

This is terrific stuff: intelligent, engrossing and, in its evocation of a long-vanished London, wonderfully plausible.' Toby Clements, Daily Telegraph 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. There were a couple of things that bothered me. The protaganists had a rather too modern outlook and view of the world, especially in their attitude to religion. Religious people were depicted as either mad or bad, with very little in between and I think this is a very over-simplistic and silly depiction, especiallly in the context of the time. The fifth and final men's Test begins on 27 July, with Australia having retained the Ashes following a rain-affected draw at Old Trafford in the fourth Test.

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It’s a heavyweight piece and solid historical fiction, if perhaps not Taylor’s finest. The ending, although tying these events up in a perfectly satisfactory style, still felt slightly open, like a sequel might be in the offing.