I had spent three years at Oxford studying to join the clergy. Three years of rising at dawn to pray, daily seminars in classics, divinity and logic … before rushing back to church for evening prayers and finally to bed. Unfortunately, it was in that gap between evening prayers and bed where I was tested; and failed magnificently. If only God had put fewer hours in the day. And not invented twins.
It’s 1727. Tom Hawkins is damned if he’s going to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a country parson. Not for him a quiet life of prayer and propriety. His preference is for wine, women and cards. But there’s a sense of honour there too, and Tom won’t pull family strings to get himself out of debt - not even when faced with the appalling horrors of London’s notorious debtors’ prison: The Marshalsea Gaol. Offered the opportunity to free himself by solving a murder, Tom finds his principles tested to the limit. He is forced to navigate a new world of hitherto unimaginable corruption and violence.
Antonia Hodgson w as born and grew up in Derby and studied English at the University of Leeds. Her debut novel, THE DEVIL IN THE MARSHALSEA, won the CW A Historical Dagger in 2014 and was shortlisted for the John Creasey First Novel award. In the US, Publishers Weekly named it one of the top 10 Mystery/Thriller titles of the year. She was first introduced to the early Georgians while taking 'A' level History. Unfortunately the course focused almost exclusively on George II's ministerial reshuffles, a subject even George II found staggeringly dull. It was only later, on discovering Hogarth, The Beggar's Opera and Moll Flanders, that she became fascinated by an often-neglected period of British history. Her favourite quote about London in the 1720s comes from a disapproving Swiss traveller, who complained that 'debauch runs wild with an unblushing countenance'. Antonia lives in London, where she works as an editor.
