Synopsis: 1715. A tale of two cities, and the man caught between them.
The Kingdom is riddled with a rumour. The late Queen Anne supposedly left a secret will promising the nation to her half-brother James – the man the Jacobites call the King Over the Water. With George I now settled on the throne, this document could prove devastating.
Enter Jonas Flynt. Gambler. Thief. Killer. Man of honour. A reluctant member of the Company of Rogues, a shady intelligence group run by the ruthless Colonel Charters, Flynt is ordered to recover the document, using any means necessary. But he is not the only one on the hunt…
The trail takes him from London’s dangerous streets to the dark Edinburgh of his childhood, where Flynt is soon embroiled in a long overdue family reunion, a jail break and a brutal street riot.
Come what may he must uncover the truth, about the crown... and about his own past...
~~~
The backdrop to this series is the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, wherein James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) attempted to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts. James II's son and heirs were excluded from the succession by the Act of Settlement 1701, definitively excluding any and all Catholics from the throne. Upon the death (1714) of Anne, daughter of James II, the throne went to her second cousin Georg Ludwig, Elector of Hanover, whose coronation as George I in October led to rioting in over twenty towns in England. The following year saw more rioting, and in response to these riots, the new Whig majority passed the Riot Act to put down disturbances. This law strengthened magistrates powers and allowed Justices of the Peace to disperse demonstrations without fear of prosecution. In September and early October the government arrested the leading Tories in fear of a Jacobite rising.
There were, however, many in England utterly opposed to George, and chief among them was Queen Anne herself. Strongly Tory, surrounded by Tory ministers sympathetic to James, Anne had always felt guilty about her half-brother's deposition. She favoured autocratic monarchy, and felt that a legitimate Stuart monarch should be on the throne, not some obscure German princeling. She saw James as young and romantic, unlike the boring George, whom she despised. All of these things, combined with the election of successive Tory governments and the growing sympathy for James in Britain, seemed to offer the best hope for Jacobite success.
Skelton uses this sympathy of Anne for her half-brother to create the plotline for the first in his series. Did Anne leave a will naming her half-brother as her successor - and what are the repercussions if such a document was to come to light. Enter the shadowy Colonel Nathaniel Charters and his Company of Rogues; and Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury and Lord High Treasurer, a life long Catholic who was in secret communication with James after Anne's death. Whose side either of them are on is open for question.
Charters engages Jonas Flynt, a Serjeant in the Company of Rogues, to seek out this document which would endeavour to put the Catholic James on the throne and be used to call the succession of Protestant George into question. But, quite naturally, there are other interested parties who would use this document for their own purposes - which do not necessarily align with Charters et el. We have the biggest villain in London, Jonathon Wyld, Thief-taker General; Madame de Fontaine, member of yet another shadowy organisation, The Fellowship; and Lord Moncrieff, a villainous double-dealer.
In pursuit of this elusive, document, Flynt's foray into Edinburgh sees him reunited with family and old friends, but also set against new enemies, however betrayal, treachery and murder soon take centre stage as a family secret comes to light.
Skelton does well to convey the atmosphere of secrecy, betrayal and rebellion that permeated the lives of those not only in England but also Scotland, where politics was not just based upon party and family lines but religion as well.
I am looking forward to the next in this historical fiction crime series.
Read in 2022.
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