The Ashes of London: The first book in the brilliant historical crime mystery series from the No. 1 Sunday Times bestselling author: Book 1 (James Marwood & Cat Lovett)

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Even if you've read Pepys on the Great Fire you don't get as vivid a portrait as Taylor gives in this novel.

Marwood, the son of another old puritan, is a minor civil servant whose only desire is to live down his notorious name and make his way in the world. The TMS team will again by led by Jonathan Agnew for the men's Ashes, with Isa Guha, Simon Mann, Alison Mitchell, Daniel Norcross and Jim Maxwell also joining as commentators.This is a used book - there is no escaping the fact it has been read by someone else and it will show signs of wear and previous use. I loved, too, the middle ground, the ordinariness of James Marwood, that illustrates how a twist of fate can completely alter a person’s life. Then John disappears … Narrated in alternating chapters by Alice and Lucy, this is an assured and atmospheric debut. While seeking her father in the aftermath of the fire, Cat lives with her Alderley cousins, who resent and exploit her. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain.

Full of he said and she said which is irritating in the extreme the author also seem to want to tell us who to like and who to dislike. His investigation brings him back into contact with tough-minded Cat – now living under an assumed name – and he turns to her for help. I'm pretty fussy about historical fiction: I've read too many rubbish stories where the author has become obsessed with telling me the history and forgetting to tell me a story. As Fiona tries to work out what has happened, it becomes clear that her hard-drinking, sexually incontinent husband’s folly has had appalling consequences, which have been unintentionally compounded by her own plans for conscious uncoupling.Whilst I found Cat’s narrative so tantalising, there’s more here from James Marwood’s perspective in a technique that I found perfectly mirrored the status of men and women in the society of the time. But he is not a victim of the blaze- there is a stab wound to his neck and his thumbs have been tied behind his back.

The heat, the winds, the burning embers, the almost spontaneous flaming and the fact that it went on for months after the main fire was subdued are all vividly portrayed in this novel, which is apparently the first in a series. I have read other works by the same author and, while they were far from perfect they were way better than this. Yet this smattering of commonplace knowledge can dull our appreciation of the scale and spectacle of the Great Fire and the devastation it wreaked. He has a fine feel for the political uncertainties of the period and the complexities of relationships both in the court and among London’s prominent citizens – aided by the introduction of several prominent historical figures.Impecunious Karen moves to the capital to work in a beauty salon in the exclusive Zona Rosa district. In 2018 he published a sequel- The Fire Court, and the third of the series, The King's Evil, was released in March 2019.

I thought the way Cat’s actions make the reader contemplate morality was so thought-provoking, because she often does the wrong thing but for absolutely the right reason.

The story is steeped in politics, intrigue, betrayal, control and mystery so that I became absolutely spellbound in its telling. The protaganists had a rather too modern outlook and view of the world, especially in their attitude to religion.