The Black Friar

Name: The Black Friar
Rating: 4.5 (4358 reviews)

by S. G. MacLean Book 2 in the Damian Seeker series.

First published 2016

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4.5(4,358)

London, 1655. Workmen at the ruined Blackfriars monastery uncover the preserved body of a Dominican friar sealed inside a wall. Damian Seeker recognises the dead man, and the discovery becomes more urgent when children begin disappearing from the streets around the city.

Seeker follows the connection between the friar, the missing children and factions plotting against Oliver Cromwell’s government. Religious radicals, Royalist agents and divided members of the security service all have reasons to obstruct him, forcing Seeker to determine whether the old corpse conceals a recent conspiracy inside the Protectorate itself.

Blackfriars carries the memory of pre-Reformation religion into a city governed by Puritan authority. The old Dominican corpse therefore has symbolic force before Seeker discovers whether it has any practical connection to the new crimes. The missing children bring that buried past into immediate danger, while factional distrust inside Cromwell’s security apparatus makes even official allies difficult to rely upon.