Review:- Susanna GREGORY – “The Body in the Thames”

Year Published: - 2011
Where the book was from:- Pensby Library
ISBN: - 978 1 84744 253 6
Pages: - 468pp
Genre: - Historical Crime
Location:- Londond, 1664
How I came across it: - On the new crime books shelf
Rating: - ***** *

One sentence summary:- In the hot summer of 1664 a Dutch delegation is in London to treat for peace with England but when one of their number is murdered the talks look set to falter.

Describe the plot without giving anything away:- Thomas Chaloner, spy for the Earl of Clarendon, has just returned from abroad in time to get married but he is less than amused when a man is murdered during the wedding service. On the broader stage, the problems of Restoration England might recede into the background if the country were to go to war with the Dutch who are seen by the majority of Londoners as taking much needed trade from the country. When a Dutch delegation comes to sue for continued peace one of their number is murdered. Thomas Chaloner is set the task of finding his killer. For Chaloner it’s not just a job but a personal matter – the dead man was his brother-in-law.

General comments:- I much prefer Susanna Gregory’s Mathew Bartholemew series (set in the mid fourteenth century) to the Thomas Chaloner one.


AUTHOR Notes:- see A Plague on Both your Houses