The Bone Fire

(Paperback)

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Description

The brand new Oswald de Lacy thriller, for fans of C.J. Sansom, Minette Walters and S.J. Parris.

A Publishers Weekly Book of the Year!

'Living legends Andrew Taylor and Susanna Gregory; bestselling phenomena SJ Parris and CJ Sansom... a league of extraordinary resurrectionists. If you love their books, I invite you to visit fourteenth-century England, with SD Sykes ... Savour the company of young Oswald de Lacy, among the most appealing historical sleuths currently on the hunt.' A.J. Finn

'A fascinating glimpse of an almost forgotten period of history.' Andrew Taylor

'Sykes give it (plague) a life and character of its own - swift, remorseless and deadly' New York Times

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1361. Plague has returned to England - thirteen years after the devastation of The Black Death.

As destruction advances towards his estate in Kent, Oswald de Lacy leads his family to the safety of a remote castle in the marshes - where his friend Godfrey is preparing a fortress to survive the coming disaster.

The rules are clear: once the de Lacys and other guests are inside the castle the portcullis will be lowered and no-one permitted to enter or leave until the Pestilence has passed.

And then a murderer strikes.

Oswald is confronted with a stark choice - leave and face the ravages of the plague, or stay and place his family at the mercy of a brutal killer. With word of his skills as an investigator preceding him, it falls to Oswald to unmask the murderer in their midst. Host, guest, or servant - everyone is a suspect in this poisoned refuge of secrets, deceit and malice.

Reviews

An intriguing and vivid addition to an increasingly interesting series, and a fascinating glimpse of an almost forgotten period of history.

Chilling and evocative. This book will have you gripped from the first page to the last

An ingenious, twisty plot with memorable characters in an intriguing siege narrative

If you love C.J. Sansom, you have to read S.D. Sykes. Her Oswald de Lacy series just gets better and better. The Bone Fire is a wonderfully claustrophobic and compelling mystery, filled with clever twists, fascinating characters and flashes of Sykes's sly wit. Utterly immersive, utterly gripping historical crime at its very, very best.

An ingenious, twisty plot with memorable characters in an intriguing siege narrative

Chilling and evocative. This book will have you gripped from the first page to the last

Neatly done, crisply-paced historical... written with a fine sense of place and time - Shots Magazine

Living legends Andrew Taylor and Susanna Gregory; bestselling phenomena SJ Parris and CJ Sansom... a league of extraordinary resurrectionists. If you love their books, I invite you to visit fourteenth-century England, with SD Sykes ... Savour the company of young Oswald de Lacy, among the most appealing historical sleuths currently on the hunt.

Author Bio

SD Sykes lives in Kent with her husband. She is a graduate from Manchester University and has an MA in Writing from Sheffield Hallam. She attended the novel writing course at literary agents Curtis Brown where she was inspired to finish her first novel. She has also written for radio and has developed screenplays with Arts Council funding.