Death in St James's Park

Five years after Charles II’s triumphant return to London, there is growing mistrust of his extravagant Court and corruption among his officials.Adding to the beleaguered monarch’s troubles are rumours of an invasion by the Dutch, the sudden appearance of his mistress’s husband, and the ever-present threats of plots either to restore the Commonwealth or to bring back a Catholic ruler. All are gleefully discussed in the coffee houses, and fill them with more steam and stench that rises from their kitchens.When a cart laden with gunpowder explodes outside the General Letter Office, it is immediately clear that such an act is more than an expression of outrage at the inefficiency of the postal service. As intelligencer to the Lord Chancellor, Thomas Chaloner cannot understand why a man of known incompetence is put in charge of investigating the attack, while he is diverted to make enquiries about the poisoning of birds in St James’s Park. He becomes even more suspicious of his employer’s motives when he discovers that the witnesses he needs to interview had close links to the General Letter Office, where activities are more firmly centred on intercepting people’s mail than delivering it.Then human rather than avian victims are poisoned, and Chaloner knows he has to ignore his master’s instructions and use his own considerable wits to defeat an enemy whose deadly tentacles reach into the very heart of government: an enemy who has the power and expertise to destroy anyone who stands in the way…