Ratcatcher

Matthew Hawkwood is a Bow Street Runner, and a very successful one at that.  He has been asked by his boss, Chief Magistrate Read to investigate a deadly highway robbery.  Part of his remit is to find a naval message, which was taken during the robbery.

To begin getting information, Hawkwood is going to have travel to the underbelly of London and meet with his old sergeant, Nathaniel Jago.  That doesn’t prevent him from seeing the arrogance and wealth of the upper crust of society.  It is through the latter that he meets Catherine de Varesne; a young woman who had lost her father to the guillotine.  She had escaped to Portugal with her mother before her father was killed.

Hawkwood finds another case heaped upon his plate when another Runner is found dead upon the banks of the Thames.  When Hawkwood receives the dead Runner’s baton, he discovers the plans for some sort of clockwork mechanism inside.  It turns out that that these were what the dead naval officer was carrying.  It isn’t long before Hawkwood is taken into a secret naval meeting to have things explained, but where does this leave the investigation?

Author James McGee’s historical thriller is exciting from the first page right through to the last.  Based on historical facts and using literary license, McGee has meshed them together into a rollicking good read, which was hard to put down.  I can hardly wait to get my hands on the sequels.