A Thief's Blood - Douglas Skelton

'Flynt is as bold and ruthless a killer-agent as James Bond, and even more resourceful' ScotsmanA city on the brink of civil war. A madman pulling the strings.A family is found butchered in a dismal room in Whitechapel. Not even the small children are left alive.Most of the authorities pay scant attention, except for Thieftaker General Jonathan Wild. Intrigued by this development, Colonel Nathaniel Charters tasks his most trusted operative, Jonas Flynt, with discovering why.When another family is murdered just as brutally, Flynt uncovers evidence of a simmering conflict between rival gangs, with Wild seemingly desperate to keep a lid on the slaughter.The question for Flynt is how deep is his new friend the Admiral, a gang leader, involved, and is he capable of killing innocents? Or is there someone else in London, more dangerous and more deranged, with blood on their hands?A scintillating serial killer thriller set amidst the dirt and grime of Georgian London, the next thrilling instalment in the McIlvanney longlisted Company of Rogues series.Praise for A Thief's Blood A Glasgow Times Book of 2024'Skelton has the storyteller's essential gift: the ability to lead you on, ever eager to know what happens next' Yorkshire Post'Skelton's eighteenth-century London is, as always, exquisitely rendered and thoroughly immersive .... In a solidly-plotted historical thriller with danger lurking around every corner and intrigue brewing from the lowest dungheap to the highest palace in the land, the realisation that these murders are inflaming existing rivalries to the point where an epic confrontation is almost unavoidable raises the stakes even further. There's no sign here that the dark and brooding Jonas Flynt's adventures are running out of steam yet' Herald