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A detective story set in Britain in the 1840s
Murder, conspiracy, radicalism, poverty, riot, violence, capitalism, technology: everything is up for grabs in the early part of Victoria’s reign.
Radical politicians, constitutional activists and trade unionists are being professionally assassinated. When Josiah Ainscough of the Stockport Police thwarts an attempt on the life of the Chartist leader, Feargus O’Connor, he receives public praise, but earns the enmity of the assassin, who vows to kill him.
‘Circles of Deceit’, the second of Paul CW Beatty’s Constable Josiah Ainscough’s historical murder mysteries, gives a superb and electric picture of what it was to live in 1840s England. The novel is set in one of the most turbulent political periods in British history, 1842-1843, when liberties and constitutional change were at the top of the political agenda, pursued using methods fair or foul.
Paul CW Beatty combines his background in science and politics with his fascination with history. A working-class boy, at grammar school in Birmingham, he had to choose between history and science at university. A medical research career in the NHS and university called, but he never forgot his dream of writing. The Constable Josiah Ainscough series of novels is the result.
Praise for ‘Children of Fire’
Josiah has a sense of duty, an abundance of honour and a sharp and diligent mind. Every scrap of information is stored away to make the links that are essential to solving the case.