Archives of Tyranny
5 total works
From the winner of the Historical Writers' Association/Goldsboro Crown Award for Historical Debut Fiction.
'A tour de force of delicate, intricate, glorious spy craft...' M.C. Scott
From the secret archives of the Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey
Summer 1914: Europe is on the brink. As Britain's enemies grow stronger, the Comptroller-General must confront the man with whom he has struggled for a generation - a man he knows only as the Spider. In a desperate gamble, he sends four agents out across the continent, on a mission they do not understand...
The future of British intelligence - of the British Empire - is in their hands. Not all of them will return. Unique and resourceful, hunted and deceived, they have embarked on a journey that will climax in the town of Sarajevo on the 28th of June 1914.
An intense, imaginative and darkly atmospheric historical spy thriller - Patrick O'Brian meets John le Carré. (Previously published as The Emperor's Gold.)
July 1805: Napoleon's army masses across the Channel - Britain is within hours of invasion and defeat. Only one thing stands in the way - an obscure government bureau of murky origins and shadowy purpose: The Comptrollerate General for Scrutiny and Survey. And, rescued from a shipwreck, his past erased, Tom Roscarrock is their newest agent.
In England, the man who recruited Roscarrock has disappeared, his agents are turning up dead, and reports of a secret French fleet are panicking the authorities. In France, a plan is underway to shatter the last of England's stability. Behind the clash of fleets and armies, there lies a secret world of intrigue, deception, treachery and violence - and Roscarrock is about to be thrown into it headfirst.
July 1805: Napoleon's army masses across the Channel - Britain is within hours of invasion and defeat.
Only one thing stands in the way - an obscure govenement bureau of murky origins and shadowy purpose: The Comptrollerate General for Scrutiny and Survey. Behind the clash of fleets and armies, there lies a secret world of intrigue, deception, treachery and violence.
Which is precisely why the Comptrollerate exists...
Into this feverish environment comes a dead man. Pulled half-drowned from a shipwreck, his past erased, Tom Roscarrock is put to work for the Comptrollerate and thrown headfirst into a bewildering world of political intrigue and violence.
In France, a plan is underway to shatter the last of England's stability. In England, the man who recruited Roscarrock has disappeared, his agents keep turning up dead, and reports of a secret French fleet are panicking the authorities.
His life in danger and his motives increasingly suspect, Roscarrock must pursue the complex conspiracy across England and then into the heart of Napoleon's France, there to confront the greatest mystery of all...
From the winner of the Historical Writers' Association/Goldsboro Crown Award for Historical Debut Fiction.
'Exhilarating, passionate, inspiring and literate and will garner new readers from lovers of Hilary Mantel and Bernard Cornwell alike.' - M.C. Scott
It is 1648 and Britain is at war with itself. The Royalists are defeated but Parliament is in turmoil, its power weakened by internal discord.
Royalism's last hope is Sir Mortimer Shay, a ruthless veteran of decades of intrigue who must rebuild a credible threat to Cromwell's rule, whatever the cost.
John Thurloe is a young official in Cromwell's service. Confronted by the extent of the Royalists' secret intelligence network, he will have to fight the true power reaching into every corner of society: the Comptrollerate-General for Scrutiny and Survey.
From the winner of the Historical Writers' Association/Goldsboro Crown Award for Historical Debut Fiction.
'A rare, clever treat of a novel.' Antonia Senior, The Times
1792: the blood begins to drip from the guillotine. The French Revolution is entering its most violent phase, and threatens all Europe with chaos. In the age of the mob, no individual is safe.
The spies of England, France and Prussia are fighting their own war for survival and supremacy. Somewhere in Paris is a hidden trove of secrets that will reveal the treacheries of a whole continent.
At the height of the madness a stranger arrives in Paris, to meet a man who has disappeared. Unknown and untrusted, he finds himself the centre of all conspiracy. When the world is changing forever, what must one man become to survive?
Treason's Spring is a thrilling and meticulous panorama of Paris in the Revolution, and a true delight from beginning to end.