This is the debut novel from a journalist turned airline pilot. Set in Elizabethan London (mainly in sleazy Southwark), it tells the story of Nicholas Shelby, a disgraced physician, and Bianca Merton, a tavern keeper and herbalist/apothecary. Nicholas believes a serial killer is on the loose preying on the vulnerable poor. No one in authority is prepared to believe or support him, so he tracks the killer alone with Bianca’s help. S subsidiary plot involves Robert Cecil, son of Lord Burghley, attempting to expose Lord John Lumley as a Catholic and thereby steal his palace of Nonsuch, which Cecil intends to give to Queen Elizabeth to secure his own advancement.

The book is well plotted and well paced with enough clever twists to keep the reader off balance and eager to read on. The characterisation is strong, with key secondary characters especially well drawn (the Casey family, Elizabeth Lumley, the Lumley servants and Ned Monkton).

There is a strong sense of place and historical period that add much atmosphere to the proceedings. ( )