The Devil in the Marshalsea

This is the first in Antonia Hodgson’s so-good-you-could-eat-it Thomas Hawkins series. It’s set in London in 1727 and the plot revolves around a likeable rake, Hawkins, whose dedication to dice, booze, and women leads him to ruin – but with the help of others. Finding himself in the notorious Marshalsea Prison – think Alcatraz but without the water and with leprosy and lice instead – and you have the makings of a wonderful prison-break type story. Hodgson’s characters – Hawkins, but also his love interest, Kitty Sparks – aren’t just alive but bring the past alive with them. It’s like… show more.

Thomas Hawkins is a likable rogue whose ambition to live the life of a lazy, indolent Georgian gentleman is frequently thwarted by powerful and shadowy figures who want him to solve their mysteries and other rogues who simply want to kill him. The action is fast-moving; the dialogue lively; the research impeccable and the characters memorable. The Devil in the Marshalsea won the CWA Dagger for Historical Crime Fiction.