REVIEW
I love this series – there is so much to enjoy in the period. In this novel poor Justice Godfrey has met his end in three different ways – bludgeoned, stabbed and strangled – thus leading John Grey to wonder if it could be suicide and some people (who might benefit from the Will) want it covered up, as in those days to take your own life was a crime.
A little research and googling the name led me to realise that this is actually based on a real Restoration case, which all added to the interest. Titus Oates and two other men fabricated evidence of what became known as the Popish Plot to murder Charles II and put his Roman Catholic brother James, the Duke of York (later King James II), on the throne.
And of course, when I got to the end there were all the notes from Mr Tyler telling me all I needed to know about what was fact and what was fiction. This novel makes the most of the history, with some insisting the Catholics dunnit, and others deciding they hadn’t. The very dodgy Titus Oates, with his even dodgier background, is a pivotal character in the story. As usual, Grey’s wife, Aminta, has her own ideas and is responsible for chivvying her husband to try things that move the plot forward.
The narrative is laced with a good amount of dry wit, which makes the books great fun to read..
This will be enjoyed by Tyler’s fans and also by those who love a twisty murder mystery based on real events. Unravelling a murder alongside John Grey is always a great pleasure and this witty and absorbing mystery is first class entertainment. Highly recommend.
ABOUT THE BOOK
October 1678. Sir Edmund Berry Godfrey, respected London wood monger and Court Justice, sets out from his house, early one foggy morning, in his second-best coat. Then he vanishes. Six days later, his body is discovered in a ditch near Primrose Hill. He has been severely beaten, strangled and stabbed through the chest – killed three times, in fact. There’s no doubt somebody wanted him dead. The cash in his pockets however is still there. And, in spite of the wet weather and muddy roads, his clothes are dry and his shoes are spotlessly clean.
People are quick to connect his killing with the role Godfrey has played in exposing a Catholic plot to kill the King. His name is, after all, an anagram of ‘dy’d by Rome’s reveng’d fury’. Parliament, whipped into a frenzy by the conspirator Titus Oates, demands a suitable perpetrator is found. But it soon becomes clear that Godfrey had not merely offended the Catholics. And he had, some weeks before, predicted his own death with uncanny accuracy.
Magistrate John Grey is summoned from his Essex village to investigate an increasingly inexplicable crime and to prevent some innocent men from being hanged as a regrettable political necessity.
BUY THE BOOKFind L C Tyler on his website: https://www.lctyler.com/
