Audio heaven: Susanna

Showing posts with label Susanna. Show all posts

Tuesday, 15 October 2013

The Westminster Poisoner – Susanna Gregory

After the Puritan ban on Christmas festivities Restoration London is awash with excess between Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night, but the two men found in Westminster Hall had not died from a surfeit of gluttony, but from poison. The Lord Chancellor appoints Chaloner as his investigator into the killiings, believing them to be of scant importance to the affairs of state he deals with. But Chaloner reveals a stinking seam of corruption in the Palace of White Hall, where even the Queen is a victim to the greed of courtiers and functionaries. And the pickings are so rich that men are prepared to go to any lengths to save their own skins and their stolen fortunes.
Unabridged.
Read by Gordon Griffin.

A Murder on London Bridge – Susanna Gregory

The murder of a man on London Bridge is the first indication that the Earl of Clarendon’s fears of a rebellion may be well-founded. His spy, Thomas Chaloner, suspects the assassin may be a member of a group dedicated to seeing the return of Puritanism, and at the same time he learns of a faction determined to bring back the Catholic Church. As he moves unobtrusively between White Hall, the Strand and the heaving congestion on the Bridge, he becomes aware of an undercurrent of restlessness in the capital. And it soon becomes clear that the groups he is investigating are planning some extraordinary climax to achieve their separate aims on Shrove Tuesday, which gives him very little time to thwart their intentions…
Unabridged.
Read by Gordon Griffin.

Blood on the Strand – Susanna Gregory

Spring, 1663: public London is executing plans to mark the third anniversary of the Restoration. Private London, murky, dangerous and seething with intrigue, is entertaining other plans. And other executions – for the death of wealthy merchant Matthew Webb and the killing of an apparent vagrant during a royal procession. Thomas Chaloner, spy for the king’s intelligence service, soon realises that both murders point in one direction: upwards, towards the great and supposedly good.
Unabridged.
Read by Gordon Griffin.

A Conspiracy of Violence – Susanna Gregory

The dour days of Cromwell are over and Charles II is well established at White Hall Palace. London seethes with new energy – but many inhabitants have lost their livelihoods. One of these is Thomas Chaloner, recently returned from Holland where he was a government spy. He hopes that John Thurloe, Cromwell feared ex-Spymaster, can secure him a new position working for the king. Thurloe sends Thomas to the Earl of Clarendon, the new Lord Chancellor. His first task seems straightforward: investigate the rumour that there is a cache of gold buried in the Tower of London. But Thomas is quickly seduced by other mysteries, including the death of his predecessor and the emergence of a clandestine Brotherhood.
Unabridged.
Read by Gordon Griffin.

Sunday, 13 October 2013

The Butcher of Smithfield – Susanna Gregory

Thomas Chaloner is despatched to investigate the death of a lawyer with links to the “Butcher of Smithfield”, a shady trader surrounded by a fearsome gang of thugs who terrorise the streets well beyond the confines of Smithfield market. His death is thought to have been one of many caused by the eating of cucumbers – but Chaloner is not convinced. He thinks it may have something to do with the news hounds whose fierce rivalry is escalating into violence. Putting his personal safety aside, he tries to penetrate the rumour mill surrounding the Butcher of Smithfield to uncover his real identity.
Unabridged.
Read by Gordon Griffin.