The Ashes of London

by Andrew Taylor Book 1 in the James Marwood & Cat Lovett series.

First published 2016

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3.9(20,006)

London, 1666. As the Great Fire consumes the city, a murdered man is discovered in the ruins of St Paul’s Cathedral with his thumbs bound behind him. James Marwood, whose father’s republican beliefs make the family politically suspect, is ordered to trace the killer through streets transformed by flame and panic.

His investigation brings him into contact with Cat Lovett, the fugitive daughter of a regicide who is determined to escape the future arranged for her. A second body in the Fleet Ditch connects private revenge with the dangerous religious and political divisions surrounding the restored court of Charles II.

The fire gives older political wounds new life because the Restoration has not erased memories of regicide, civil war or religious persecution. Cat’s family history makes her vulnerable to a government still punishing former republicans, while Marwood’s father compromises his own position. Rebuilding London therefore occurs alongside another kind of reconstruction: deciding who can safely belong to Charles II’s restored kingdom.