Synopsis
‘A page-turner of a crime thriller . . . This is a world conveyed with convincing, terrible clarity’ – C. J. Sansom, bestselling author of Dissolution
Winner of the HWA Debut Crown
Winner of the Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award
Blood & Sugar is the thrilling debut historical crime novel from Laura Shepherd-Robinson for fans of C. J. Sansom and Andrew Taylor.
June, 1781. An unidentified body hangs upon a hook at Deptford Dock, London – horribly tortured and branded with a slaver’s mark.
Some days later, Captain Harry Corsham – a war hero embarking upon a promising parliamentary career – learns that an old friend, passionate abolitionist Tad Archer, had been about to expose a secret that he believed could cause irreparable damage to the British slaving industry. He’d said people were trying to kill him, and now he is missing . . .
To discover what happened to Tad, Harry is forced to pick up the threads of his friend’s investigation, delving into the heart of the conspiracy Tad had unearthed. His investigation will threaten his political prospects, his family’s happiness, and force a reckoning with his past, risking the revelation of secrets that have the power to destroy him.
And that is only if he can survive the mortal dangers awaiting him in Deptford . . .
'Epic, harrowing, thrilling, brutal, addictive' – C. J. Tudor, author of The Chalk Man
Shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger
Shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger
Longlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year
Details
Reviews
“Laura Shepherd-Robinson has written a story that is not only a page-turner of a thriller but, to an extent unusual in historical novels, where you feel you really are listening to a voice from the eighteenth century. This is a world conveyed with convincing, terrible clarity’”C. J. Sansom, author of Dissolution, Tombland and Winter in Madrid
“A striking historical thriller . . . Few first novels are as accomplished as this”Andrew Taylor, author of The Ashes of London
“Epic, harrowing, thrilling, brutal, addictive. I read it flat out in one day”C. J. Tudor, author of The Chalk Man
“Magnificent . . . A tense and gripping historical thriller that shines an unwavering light on a dark period in British history. Unmissable.”Antonia Hodgson, author of The Devil in the Marshalsea
