The Seeker

The Seeker
Author: S.G. MacLean
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2015-05-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1782061665

A bloody murder. An open and shut case? In Oliver Cromwell's London, nothing is as it seems - Captain Damian Seeker must battle to find justice, when an innocent man's life hangs in the balance. 'Challenges CJ Sansom for dominion of historical crime' Sunday Times 'The best historical crime novel of the year' Sunday Express London, 1654. Oliver Cromwell is at the height of his power and has declared himself Lord Protector. Yet he has many enemies, at home and abroad. London is a complex web of spies and merchants, priests and soldiers, exiles and assassins. One of the web's most fearsome spiders is Damian Seeker, agent of the Lord Protector. No one knows where Seeker comes from, who his family is, or even his real name. All that is known of him for certain is that he is utterly loyal to Cromwell, and that nothing can be long hidden from him. In the city, coffee houses are springing up, fashionable places where men may meet to plot and gossip. Suddenly they are ringing with news of a murder. John Winter, hero of Cromwell's all-powerful army, is dead, and the lawyer, Elias Ellingworth, found standing over the bleeding body, clutching a knife. Yet despite the damning evidence, Seeker is not convinced of Ellingworth's guilt. He will stop at nothing to bring the killer to justice: and Seeker knows better than any man where to search.

S. G. MacLean: Captain Damian Seeker Books 1 to 5

S. G. MacLean: Captain Damian Seeker Books 1 to 5
Author: S. G. MacLean
Publisher: Quercus
Total Pages: 1849
Release: 2023-04-20
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1529430305

Experience the story from start to finish with this complete collection of the Captain Damian Seeker Series from prize-winning author S. G. MacLean. London, 1654. Oliver Cromwell is at the height of his power and has declared himself Lord Protector. Yet he has many enemies, at home and abroad. The city is a teeming warren of spies and merchants, priests and soldiers, exiles and assassins. One of the web's most fearsome spiders is Damian Seeker, agent of the Lord Protector. No one knows where Seeker comes from, who his family is, or even his real name. All that is known of him for certain is that he is utterly loyal to Cromwell, and that nothing can be hidden from him. Spies, plotters and murderers have all met their match in the mysterious and cutthroat Seeker. Join him as he roots out royalist plots and investigates murders in this thrilling series. ************************* Praise for S. G. MacLean 'MacLean's characters are subtle and convincing' Sunday Times 'One of the best writers of historical crime' The Times 'Gold-plated research' Daily Mail 'Transports your body and soul to another time and place' Craig Russell 'A delight on all levels . . . engaging and moving' Manda Scott 'MacLean is a terrific storyteller' Big Issue

The Black Friar

The Black Friar
Author: S.G. MacLean
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2016-10-06
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1784293385

Rebellion in the city, and a Royalist spy in his own ranks - Damian Seeker, Captain of Oliver Cromwell's guard, must eradicate both if the fragile Republic is not to fail. 'MacLean skilfully weaves together the disparate threads of her plot to create a gripping tale of crime and sedition in an unsettled city' Sunday Times 'MacLean's light touch portrait of a hard man with a softer core is what makes these books so memorable' The Times London, 1655, and Cromwell's regime is under threat from all sides. Damian Seeker, Captain of Cromwell's Guard, is all too aware of the danger facing Cromwell. Parliament resents his control of the Army while the Army resents his absolute power. In the east end of London, a group of religious fanatics plots rebellion. In the midst of all this, a stonemason uncovers a perfectly preserved body dressed in the robes of a Dominican friar, bricked up in a wall in the crumbling Black Friars. Ill-informed rumours and speculation abound, but Seeker instantly recognises the dead man. What he must discover is why he met such a hideous end, and what his connection was to the children who have started to disappear from around the city. Unravelling these mysteries is challenging enough, and made still harder by the activities of dissenters at home, Royalist plotters abroad and individuals who are not what they seem...

The Bear Pit

The Bear Pit
Author: S. G. MacLean
Publisher: The Seeker
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2019-07-11
Genre:
ISBN: 9781787473577

'Could challenge CJ Sansom for dominion' Sunday Times London, 1656: Captain Seeker is back in the city, on the trail of an assassin preparing to strike at the heart of Oliver Cromwell's Republic The Commonwealth is balanced on a knife edge. Royalists and disillusioned former Parliamentarians have united against Oliver Cromwell, now a king in all but name. Three conspirators, representing these factions, plan to assassinate the Lord Protector, paving the way back to the throne for Charles Stuart once and for all. Captain Damian Seeker, meanwhile, is preoccupied by the horrifying discovery in an illegal gambling den of the body of a man ravaged by what is unmistakably a bear. Yet the bears used for baiting were all shot when the sport was banned by Cromwell. So where did this fearsome creature come from, and why would someone use it for murder? With Royalist-turned-Commonwealth-spy Thomas Faithly tracking the bear, Seeker investigates its victim. The trail leads from Kent's coffee house on Cornhill, to a German clockmaker in Clerkenwell, to the stews of Southwark, to the desolate Lambeth Marshes where no one should venture at night. When the two threads of the investigation begin to join, Seeker realises just what - and who - he is up against. The Royalists in exile have sent to London their finest mind and greatest fighter, a man who will stop at nothing to ensure the Restoration. Has Seeker finally met his match?

The House of Lamentations

The House of Lamentations
Author: S. G. MacLean
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2020-07-09
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1787473643

'Could challenge CJ Sansom for dominion' Sunday Times Summer, 1658, and the Republic may finally be safe: the combined Stuart and Spanish forces have been heavily defeated by the English and French armies on the coast of Flanders, and the King's cause appears finished. Yet one final, desperate throw of the dice is planned. And who can stop them if not Captain Damian Seeker? The fifth gripping outing for Seeker in this acclaimed and award-winning series of historical thrillers. Will his legacy endure? *************************************** *Readers are loving The House of Lamentations* 'A hugely entertaining, page-turning insight into a fascinating period of English history' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'I loved this book . . . a gripping, well-written historical thriller' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'A great story, engaging and keeps you gripped' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Excellent characterisation . . . the sort of book that you don't want to put down' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 'Exciting from start to finish' ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Bookseller of Inverness

The Bookseller of Inverness
Author: S. G. MacLean
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2022-08-04
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1529414199

A GRIPPING HISTORICAL THRILLER SET IN INVERNESS IN THE WAKE OF THE 1746 BATTLE OF CULLODEN. 'This slice of historical fiction takes you on a wild ride' THE TIMES After Culloden, Iain MacGillivray was left for dead on Drummossie Moor. Wounded, his face brutally slashed, he survived only by pretending to be dead as the Redcoats patrolled the corpses of his Jacobite comrades. Six years later, with the clan chiefs routed and the Highlands subsumed into the British state, Iain lives a quiet life, working as a bookseller in Inverness. One day, after helping several of his regular customers, he notices a stranger lurking in the upper gallery of his shop, poring over his collection. But the man refuses to say what he's searching for and only leaves when Iain closes for the night. The next morning Iain opens up shop and finds the stranger dead, his throat cut, and the murder weapon laid out in front of him - a sword with a white cockade on its hilt, the emblem of the Jacobites. With no sign of the killer, Iain wonders whether the stranger discovered what he was looking for - and whether he paid for it with his life. He soon finds himself embroiled in a web of deceit and a series of old scores to be settled in the ashes of war. ****************** PRAISE FOR THE BOOKSELLER OF INVERNESS 'Fresh and intriguing . . . Her best yet' ANDREW TAYLOR 'Everything you could ask for from a historical thriller' ANTONIA HODGSON 'An intricately wrought, compulsively page-turning tale' CRAIG RUSSELL 'A first rate historical thriller' 5* READER REVIEW 'From the moment I began reading I was hooked' 5* READER REVIEW 'Hugely entertaining . . . fast paced, twisting and turning' 5* READER REVIEW

Destroying Angel

Destroying Angel
Author: S. G. MacLean
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 358
Release: 2018-07-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1786484196

WINNER OF THE 2019 CWA HISTORICAL DAGGER 'S. G. MacLean can make any historical period sing with life' Antonia Hodgson Murder, treachery and a reckoning with his past await Captain Damian Seeker in this gripping historical thriller. Yorkshire, 1655. Seeker has been ordered to the North - a place from which he fled a decade earlier. A routine visit to the village of Faithly turns ugly when the village commissioner's ward is poisoned at a dinner for locals. Among those invited was the government-appointed enforcer of Puritan morality in the region. Perhaps this symbol of Cromwell's power was the intended victim? Or Seeker himself? Or was it the young woman, who had a magic way with herbs and was rumoured to be a witch? As he investigates the girl's death, old secrets come to haunt Seeker. A painful meeting will force a reckoning between his past and present. But with a prominent Royalist on the run in Yorkshire, and a murderer still at large, any distractions could prove deadly. ******************************** Praise for S. G. MacLean 'A gripping tale of crime and sedition' Sunday Times 'Excellent at conveying the insecurities and unsettling memories that bedevil Cromwell's dying Protectorate' Daily Mail 'The best historical crime novel of the year' Sunday Express 'One of the best writers of historical crime . . . a fascinatingly flawed hero' The Times

Blown for Good

Blown for Good
Author: Marc Headley
Publisher: BFG Books Inc.
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2010-03-31
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0982502222

Marc Headley started working for the Scientology organization in 1989. After leaving in 2005, Marc posted bits and pieces of what went on at the Scientology headquarters (known from inside as the International Base). Marc posted anonymously under the screen name of Blownforgood aka BFG. In September 2008 Marc was invited to speak to an international conference of European government representatives regarding the Scientology organization and their abuses. It was at this time that Marc revealed his identity as Blownforgood. By 2009, the internet posts Marc had written over the years had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, but still there were people who questioned their validity. Stories of grown men being thrown into dirty lakes and pools as punishment? Physical abuse never reported to authorities? How could this happen in modern day America? Two years after Marc wrote about these things and posted them on the internet, a Pulitzer Prize winning U.S. newspaper printed accounts from former staff member who worked at the Int Base that matched and confirmed what Marc had written about. Not only that, Scientology officials admitted that these things had taken place! Find out what they did not talk about in Blown for Good.

The Bear Pit

The Bear Pit
Author: S.G. MacLean
Publisher: Quercus Publishing
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2019-07-11
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1787473597

'Could challenge CJ Sansom for dominion' Sunday Times London, 1656: Captain Seeker is back in the city, on the trail of an assassin preparing to strike at the heart of Oliver Cromwell's Republic The Commonwealth is balanced on a knife edge. Royalists and disillusioned former Parliamentarians have united against Oliver Cromwell, now a king in all but name. Three conspirators, representing these factions, plan to assassinate the Lord Protector, paving the way back to the throne for Charles Stuart once and for all. Captain Damian Seeker, meanwhile, is preoccupied by the horrifying discovery in an illegal gambling den of the body of a man ravaged by what is unmistakably a bear. Yet the bears used for baiting were all shot when the sport was banned by Cromwell. So where did this fearsome creature come from, and why would someone use it for murder? With Royalist-turned-Commonwealth-spy Thomas Faithly tracking the bear, Seeker investigates its victim. The trail leads from Kent's coffee house on Cornhill, to a German clockmaker in Clerkenwell, to the stews of Southwark, to the desolate Lambeth Marshes where no one should venture at night. When the two threads of the investigation begin to join, Seeker realises just what - and who - he is up against. The Royalists in exile have sent to London their finest mind and greatest fighter, a man who will stop at nothing to ensure the Restoration. Has Seeker finally met his match?

The Shark-Infested Custard

The Shark-Infested Custard
Author: Charles Willeford
Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2009-08-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307490858

From the master of Miami noir comes this tale of four regular guys living in a singles apartment building who experience firsthand that there's more than one type of heat in Miami. Larry Dolman is a rather literal minded ex-cop who now works private security. Eddie Miller is an airline pilot who's studying to get his real estate license. Don Luchessi is a silver salesman who's separated from his wife but too Catholic to get a divorce. Hank Norton is a drug company rep who gets four times as many dames as any of the other guys. They are all regular guys who like to drink, play cards, meet broads, and shoot a little pool. But when a friendly bet goes horribly awry, they find themselves with two dead bodies on their hands and a homicidal husband in the wings—and acting more like hardened criminals than upstanding citizens.