The Butcher of Smithfield

I love Ms. Gregory's long-running Matthew Bartholomew series, and this is a new series that she has begun. It is set in Restoration England, and there aren't a lot of fiction books set in this era. This book was set in the fall of 1663. Oliver Cromwell has been removed and executed and Prince Charles II has resumed his throne and been on it for about three years when the book was set. Chaloner is a spy. He actually worked for Cromwell's henchmen, but when the Restoration came, he switched allegiance to Royalists. I love the setting for these books, and I love the stories. Ms. Gregory mixes real historical people with her fictional ones, and everything is so authentic. In this book Thomas has recently returned London after a dangerous four month mission in Spain and Portugal. His patron has asked him to prove that a rather unsavoury lawyer was murdered. The cause of death was ruled as "death by cucumbers". Thomas finds himself in the middle of a number of these kinds of death, and he has to try to unravel what is going on. This is a great medieval page-turner.