THE CRY OF THE HANGMAN

A printer’s apprentice tackles a murder.

Life is hard in 17th-century London, but Lucy Campion has made the most of her talents. Originally a housemaid, Lucy won permission from her employer, Magistrate Hargrave, to apprentice herself to printer Horace Aubrey. In Aubrey’s shop, she and Lach, her male counterpart, create stories and ballads that they print, illustrate, and sell in the local markets and taverns. Lucy’s tales have gained a modest following when suddenly she finds her audience whisked out from under her by handsome bookseller Phineas Fowler, whose bloodthirsty narratives and compelling delivery leave her literally in the dust. What concerns her as much as the loss of customers is the provenance of Fowler’s tales, since many of them resemble cases tried by Hargrave. Fowler’s renderings often cast her former boss in a bad light, blaming him for deciding cases unfairly and, ultimately, corruptly. Lucy suspects that Fowler’s accounts are connected to a stash of case notes that were recently stolen from Hargrave. But as she probes the connection between Fowler and the stolen files, the more recent murders of soap makers Guy and Mary Donnett make their way into Fowler’s repertoire. Unraveling the tangled skein of murders old and new, theft, deception, and corruption is a hefty order but not beyond the ability of Calkins’ resourceful heroine.

Creepy and ingenious.