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Death of a Stranger

by John Pilkington Book 1 in the The Bishopsgate Ward Mysteries series.

First published 2025

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4.2(1,057)

Bishopsgate Ward, London, 1594. Matthew Cutler, a widowed father and former actor, has recently become constable of Spitalfields when Venetian perfumer Paulo Brisco is murdered in his shop. The killing threatens to inflame a neighbourhood already tense with suspicion of immigrants and competition between tradesmen.

Cutler has little formal authority, but his theatrical experience gives him an unusual investigative tool: disguise. Moving between households, workshops and the crowded streets beyond the city walls, he must separate prejudice from evidence and understand why an apparently quiet stranger was targeted. The first Bishopsgate Ward mystery presents policing as a local civic duty in an Elizabethan district where poverty, commerce and religious anxiety meet.

Historical Periods

Elizabethan London1558–1603

Genres

Crime & Mystery Historical Thriller

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