The Devil's Agent

by Roger Hurn

This novel of crime and corruption in a lawless eighteenth-century London “captures the dark streets of the capital perfectly” (Richard Foreman).
 
Nearly a century before London would have a professional police force, “thief-taker” Balthazar Bloodwine can be hired privately to help rid the capital of the criminals that are as rife as the pox. He has the lean and hungry look of someone who lives by his wits and who trusts no one’s judgment but his own.
 
But the boot is suddenly on the other foot for Bloodwine when he himself is “apprehended” one night by thugs in the service of one William Murray, the MP for Boroughbridge and solicitor general. Murray is convinced that a fellow member of parliament is mixed up in corruption related to a lucrative contract to transport convicts to America.
 
Murray gives the thief-taker a task: infiltrate and expose this powerful man. Now Bloodwine is caught between a rock and a hard place—with the noose waiting for him if he fails . . .

98 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 8, 2016

About the author

Roger Hurn is an experienced writer with a background in primary schools, and has been a headteacher. He has written a large number of successful educational books, articles, games and web-based materials, including several covering the basics of English at grades 7-11.

Reviews

[C. Coleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good time period mystery, fast paced, good characterization easy to follow. I liked that it set up the elements of a series, but the book is stand alone too. Most series books leave too many threads open at the end of the books. This one can stand alone, but it leads the reader to further adventures of the protagonist.

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novella length adventure in what I would be happy to see as a series - Barthy Bloodwine is a winning antihero and is drawn very nicely for such a short book. Perhaps there's one too many characters and the women are all aspects of the same coin (basically thin, unhappy harpies that are evil masterminds or prostitutes) - but a dirty London and a seedy underworld are always a good time.

I received an ecopy from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Balthazar Bloodwine, a thief, is forced to work for William Murray, M.P. to help him convict another M.P. James Inglethorpe of wrongdoing.
The novella was an interesting enough story, without any redeemable or likeable characters.
A NetGalley Book