This olden days crime-thriller-yarn uses an unsolved real-death murder as its foundation. Early one foggy autumnal morning in 1536, Robert Packington, a respectable and devout London merchant, was assassinated in Cheapside by gunshot. Packington’s young (fictional) friend Thomas Treviot is determined to find the culprit. His convoluted investigation, trails him through much impenetrable political undergrowth. There is no faulting the assiduous finesse of the period detail. The spiteful and hysterical religious atmosphere of the time is especially well drawn, as is the social environment of the 16th century. Even though the rampaging narrative style lacks fluidity there may be enough meaty history for fans of the past to gnaw on. The obverse is that crime-thriller fans might find the plotting and clunky dialogue to be over-explanative at the expense of being entertaining.
