The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins

WINNER OF THE CWA HISTORICAL DAGGER AWARD 2014.

Longlisted for the John Creasey Dagger Award for best debut crime novel of 2014.

London, 1727 – and Tom Hawkins is about to fall from his heaven of card games, brothels, and coffeehouses to the hell of a debtors' prison. The Marshalsea is a savage world of its own, with simple rules: those with family or friends who can lend them a little money may survive in relative comfort. Those with none will starve in squalor and disease. And those who try to escape will suffer a gruesome fate at the hands of the gaol's rutheless governor and his cronies.

The trouble is, Tom Hawkins has never been good at following rules – even simple ones. And the recent grisly murder of a debtor, Captain Roberts, has brought further terror to the gaol. While the Captain's beautiful widow cries for justice, the finger of suspicion points only one way: to the sly, enigmatic figure of Samuel Fleet.

Some call Fleet a devil, a man to avoid at all costs. But Tom Hawkins is sharing his cell. Soon, Tom's choice is clear: Get to the truth of the murder – or be the next to die.

A twisting mystery, a dazzling evocation of early 18th-Century London, The Devil in the Marshalsea is a thrilling debut novel full of intrigue and suspense.

The new twisting mystery from CWA Historical Dagger 2014 winner Antonia Hodgson.

Late spring, 1728, and Thomas Hawkins has left London for the wild beauty of Yorkshire – forced on a mission he can't refuse. John Aislabie, one of the wealthiest men in England, has been threatened with murder. Blackmailed into investigating, Tom must hunt down those responsible – or lose the woman he loves forever.

Arriving at the grand estate of Studley Royal, Tom realises that the threats to Aislabie and his family must be connected to someone in the house itself. Could one of the servants be responsible? And what of the mysterious Mrs Fairwood, the young widow who claims to be Aislabie's lost daughter?

Far from the ragged comforts of home, Tom and his ward, Sam Fleet, enter a world of elegant surfaces and hidden danger. Someone is determined to punish John Aislabie – and anyone who stands in the way. As the violence escalates and shocking truths are revealed, Tom is dragged inexorably towards the darkest night of his life.

Inspired by real characters, events and settings, A Death at Fountains Abbey is a gripping stand-alone historical thriller. It also continues the story that began with the award-winning The Devil in the Marshalsea and The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins.