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The Butcher of Smithfield
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Thomas
Chaloner, just returned from a clandestine excursion to Spain and Portugal
on behalf of the Queen, finds London dank and grey under leaden skies.
He finds many things changed, including the Government slapping a tax
on printed newspapers. Hand written news reports escape the duty, and
the rivalry between the producers of the two conduits of news is the
talk of the coffee houses with the battle to be first with any sort
of intelligence escalating into violent rivalry. And it seems that a
number of citizens who have eaten cucumbers have come to untimely deaths.
It is such a death which Chaloner is despatched to investigate; that
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. Chaloner doesn't believe that
either this death or the others are caused by a simple vegetable, but
to prove his theory he has to untangle the devious means of how news
is gathered and he has to put his personal safety aside as he tries
to penetrate the rumour mill surrounding the Butcher of Smithfield and
discover his real identity.
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