Black Drop: the Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of the Month

(Paperback, Main)

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'Black Drop is a joy from start to finish' - ANDREW TAYLOR
'A thrilling slice of pitch-dark historical fiction' - EMMA STONEX
'A gripping, intricate story of Georgian high politics' - W.C. RYAN

This is the confession of Laurence Jago. Clerk. Gentleman. Reluctant spy.

July 1794, and the streets of London are filled with rumours of revolution. Political radical Thomas Hardy is to go on trial for treason, the war against the French is not going in Britain's favour, and negotiations with the independent American colonies are on a knife edge.

Laurence Jago - clerk to the Foreign Office - is ever more reliant on the Black Drop to ease his nightmares. A highly sensitive letter has been leaked to the press, which may lead to the destruction of the British Army, and Laurence is a suspect. Then he discovers the body of a fellow clerk, supposedly a suicide.

Blame for the leak is shifted to the dead man, but even as the body is taken to the anatomists, Laurence is certain both of his friend's innocence, and that he was murdered. But after years of hiding his own secrets from his powerful employers, and at a time when even the slightest hint of treason can lead to the gallows, how can Laurence find the true culprit without incriminating himself

A thrilling historical mystery, perfect for readers of C.J. Sansom, Andrew Taylor, Antonia Hodgson and Laura Shepherd-Robinson.

'This opium-fuelled gem is a murderous romp through the tangled roots of British democracy' - Janice Hallet

Reviews

'A fine debut that weaves the complex politics of 18th-century Britain into a gripping murder mystery' - The Times

'Excellent... Moving between high politics and the city's meaner streets, and filled with memorable characters, Black Drop offers first-class entertainment' - Sunday Times

'Historical crime fiction set in a teeming late eighteenth-century London, as nimbly realised as by the genre's master, Andrew Taylor. Foreign office clerk Laurence Jago is a reluctant spy involved in arcane skulduggery' - Financial Times

'Black Drop is a joy from start to finish. I particularly liked the glimpses of the grubby machinery of government from the inside, giving a real sense of the intrigues behind closed doors. Jago is a very sympathetic hero, with all his flaws, virtues and secrets, and Philpott made me want to smile and cheer' - Andrew Taylor, author of The Ashes of London

'A strikingly assured and intelligent first novel about power, conspiracy and the lengths to which the influential will go to ensure their survival. Nattrass is confident enough in her knowledge of the period to avoid loading her narrative with explanations' - Literary Review

'A riveting political thriller. Gripping, moving, and utterly engaging' - PHILIPPA EAST

'Absolutely compelling, and so atmospheric I felt I was there' - FRANCES QUINN

'A sparkling evocation of a distant time. I loved it' - TREVOR WOOD

'An astounding debut novel, written with style and confidence' - A.J. WEST

Author Bio

Leonora Nattrass studied eighteen-century literature and politics, and spent ten years lecturing in English and publishing works on William Cobbett. She then moved to Cornwall, where she lives in a seventeenth-century house with seventeenth-century draughts, and spins the fleeces of her traditional Ryeland sheep into yarn. Black Drop is her first novel.