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A new investigation is the last thing that Dr Adam Bascom wants. He’d much prefer to devote himself to sorting out his future. But when a kindly surgeon living on the edge of Aylsham is brutally murdered, and the local coroner does all he can to bring in a verdict of accidental death, Adam knows he has no choice.
At first, a grave shortage of direct evidence and the reluctance of the locals to talk freely to someone so far above them socially look set to prevent any progress. Still, Adam persists, drawing on whatever help he can muster from friends and contacts. Even so, progress is slow until more help arrives in the unexpected form of the surgeon’s former housekeeper, Rose Thoday. Can our young doctor accept collaborating on equal terms with a mere woman? What will upper-class society — and Lady Alice — think of him if he does? Adam must grapple with much more than the dispassionate mental challenges he’s been used to. This time, he’s up against against a conspiracy of clever, desperate and ruthless men. All face the gallows if they are brought to justice. One at least will not hesitate to kill again to save himself. This is a contest which may very well cost Adam and Rose their lives.
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Category Archives: Politics
The Georgian View of Democracy
One of the greatest differences between political life in Georgian times and today was who was allowed to have a vote, both nationally and locally. In most modern, Western societies the most basic assumption is the primacy of democracy in … Continue reading
Same Old, Same Old?
Studying 18th-century British history provides clear proof that we have learned almost nothing in the 250-odd years since then. The problems we grapple with today are the same ones our ancestors were trying to solve in the 1780s and 1790s. Then, … Continue reading
Radicalism, Constitutional Reform and the French Revolution
My series of books about Dr Adam Bascom, Norfolk physician and solver of mysteries, are set in the period after the French Revolution, when the ideas and attitudes spawned in its turbulent birth were sweeping across Europe, unsettling regimes that … Continue reading
The Independents, Precursors of Radicalism
To eighteenth-century Britons, the ‘Glorious Revolution’ of 1688 and the Bill of Rights of 1689 were more than simple historical and political events. They were the foundations of British political stability, the guarantors of freedom from arbitrary rule. Under the … Continue reading
All ISN’T Fair in War
Here’s a fascinating piece from the Norfolk Chronicle of 21st October, 1780. In the course of the present war, humanity hath found a distinguished friend in Lord Viscount TOWNSHEND. His behaviour does honour to the dignity of his rank and … Continue reading
Norwich Election Riot. September 23rd, 1786
An account from the Norfolk Chronicle of an election riot in Norwich. I’ve noted before that Norwich elections tended to be turbulent, especially towards the end of the 18th century. However, this one seems to have drawn in nearly all … Continue reading
The Gordon Riots of 1780
This is an insider’s view of days of mob violence in late Georgian London. Laetitia Hawkins was more or less in the middle of things and her father, Sir John, was a local magistrate and thus responsible for trying to … Continue reading
