A Death at Fountains Abbey - Antonia Hodgson
A Death at Fountains Abbey is the third of Antonia Hodgson's Thomas Hawkins novels, and in these books she's created an intriguing character and a fascinating blend of historically informed crime fiction. For anyone coming new to the series here, it takes a while to warm to Hawkins or really work out what his role and position is, but this just makes figuring things out a little more interesting and it certainly doesn't detract from reading the novel as a standalone historical crime thriller. The colourful backstory to Thomas Hawkins is enhanced by his recent escape from death, presumably in the previous book, The Last Confession of Thomas Hawkins . Having survived execution on the gallows, he has acquired an even greater mystique and reputation, known to many as Half-Hanged Hawkins. Set in 1728, Hawkins is in service to Queen Caroline in some unofficial capacity, who in this latest novel uses some leverage she has over him to send him to Fountains Abbey, where former Cha...