The Gallows Murders

In the summer of 1523, sweating sickness and political anxiety unsettle London while Henry VIII has removed his court to Windsor. Threatening letters bearing the name and seal of one of the princes believed murdered in the Tower demand gold and promise public accusations against the Tudor dynasty. Cardinal Wolsey sends Benjamin Daunbey and Roger Shallot into the city’s prisons, taverns and execution grounds to identify the conspirators.

The investigation connects murders around the gallows with a scheme designed to exploit plague, popular fear and uncertainty about Henry VII’s claim to the throne. Roger’s life becomes part of the bargain when the king demands a swift solution. The novel uses the fate of the Princes in the Tower as a weapon in an early Tudor conspiracy rather than as a distant historical mystery.