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The Blake and Avery Mystery Series

by 3 books in this series
#1 - The Strangler Vine
#1 - The Strangler Vine
For lovers of Sherlock, Shardlake and Ripper Street. A gripping and pulse-racing mystery thriller with a great detective double act.

'Splendid, enthralling, an exotic mystery that captivated me.' Bernard Cornwell

Calcutta 1837. Young officer William Avery is tasked by his employers-the East India Company-with tracking down disgraced poet and spy Xavier Mountstuart, lost in the jungles of central India. Accompanied by the dissolute and mysterious Jeremiah Blake, Avery is sure the mission is doomed.

When their search leads them into Kali-worshipping Thug territory, the pair are soon fighting for their lives, but impelled to solve the horrifying mystery behind their mission. With death and danger on every side, is it too late for them to save themselves?

Shortlisted for the John Creasey New Blood Dagger for Best Debut Crime novel of the year 2014, and the HWA Debut Crown for Best Historical Novel 2015, Longlisted for the Theakston's Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year 2015 and the Bailey's Woman's Prize for Fiction 2014
#2 - The Printer's Coffin
#2 - The Printer's Coffin
For lovers of Sherlock, Shardlake and Ripper Street. A hugely enjoyable action-packed Victorian thriller with a great detective double act.

'Delicious Stuff.' Financial Times


Published in hardback as The Infidel Stain.

London, 1841. Mr Jeremiah Blake and Captain William Avery, recently returned from India, are invited by Viscount Allington to examine the particulars of a grisly pair of murders. Two printers from the seditious gutter presses have been brutally dispatched in distinct but similar circumstances. Fearing the deaths will stoke the fires of Chartism sweeping the capital, Allington hopes Blake and Avery's determination to uncover the truth will solve these crimes and help restore civic order. But there are others who seem equally determined that the pair shall fail . . .
#3 - The Devil's Feast
#3 - The Devil's Feast
For lovers of Sherlock, Shardlake and Ripper Street. A hugely enjoyable heart-pounding Victorian thriller: murder, a celebrity chef and a great detective double-act.

Long-listed for a CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger

'Wonderful ... The Devil's Feast proves to be a sumptuous treat' The Times

'Criminally good ... I love this mystery series - it just gets better and better' Woman & Home

London, 1842. There has been a mysterious and horrible death at the Reform, London's newest and grandest gentleman's club. A death the club is desperate to hush up.

Captain William Avery is persuaded to investigate, and soon discovers a web of rivalries and hatreds, both personal and political, simmering behind the club's handsome façade - and in particular concerning its resident genius, Alexis Soyer, 'the Napoleon of food', a chef whose culinary brilliance is matched only by his talent for self-publicity.

But Avery is distracted, for where is his mentor and partner-in-crime Jeremiah Blake? And what if this first death was only a dress rehearsal for something far more sinister?

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