The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins

by Antonia Hodgson Book 2 in the Thomas Hawkins series.

First published 2015

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London, 1728. Thomas Hawkins begins his account on the road to Tyburn, condemned for a murder he says he did not commit. The events leading to the gallows begin when he accepts an assignment involving Henrietta Howard, mistress of George II and servant to Queen Caroline. Henrietta’s violent husband Charles is pressing claims that threaten both her safety and the royal household.

When Hawkins’s reforming neighbour Joseph Burden is killed, the investigation brings court politics together with the policing of vice led by magistrate Sir John Gonson. Queen Caroline offers influence and protection, but only while Hawkins remains useful and discreet. The novel uses documented tensions in the Howard marriage and the public culture of execution, moral reform and patronage to construct its fictional conspiracy.