Len Tyler has, until now, been best known for his humorous Ethelred and Elsie series, in which a mid-list crime writer and his intrepid agent solved perky crimes with aplomb. This, however, is another kettle of fish, the debut volume in an ambitious historical series, featuring John Grey, a young lawyer with few clients at the time of Oliver Cromwell and Charles Stuart.
Painstaking research gives the proceedings a strong patina of credibility and the main character, a man with a mission to defend the truth in a period of plots and counterplots involving the wrath of John Thurloe, Cromwell's spy master and the corpse of a Royalist spy found in an Essex village, proves engaging and sympathetic.
From the success of Hilary Mantel's novels, we know the fascination the period exerts on readers; Tyler might well have found a new criminal milieu. ~

The theatres are padlocked. Christmas has been cancelled. It is 1657 and the unloved English Republic is eight years old.
| Primary Genre | Crime and Mystery |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
Win a Pair of Tickets to Agatha Christie’s The Hollow at a Venue of Your Choice.
Closing date: 15/10/2026
The theatres are padlocked. Christmas has been cancelled.
A Cruel Necessity features in the following genres: Crime and Mystery, Historical Fiction, eBooks of the Month, Fiction, Recommendations
Paperback, Hardback. £9.89, down from the £10.99 cover price. In Stock.
A Cruel Necessity was written by L. C. Tyler and published by Constable an imprint of Little, Brown Book Group
A Cruel Necessity has 320 pages
Yes it is part of A John Grey Historical Mystery series
£9.89, reduced from £10.99. In Stock.