Blood’s Game

Name: Blood’s Game
Rating: 4.28 (848 reviews)

by Angus Donald Book 1 in the Holcroft Blood series.

First published 2017

Amazon

4.3(848)

London, 1670. Holcroft Blood enters the service of the Duke of Buckingham, where his unusual gift for mathematics, ciphers and mechanical problems makes him valuable in the political world surrounding Charles II. Court patronage offers advancement but also makes the young man vulnerable to schemes in which loyalty can be purchased or withdrawn.

Holcroft’s father, Colonel Thomas Blood, is living by fraud and conspiracy after the failure of his political causes. When he agrees to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London, Holcroft is caught between family obligation and the royal government he serves. The novel reconstructs the notorious 1671 robbery as a contest among courtiers, informers and a father and son who understand danger in very different ways.