York, 1799.
In August, an artist is found murdered in his home - stabbed with a pair of scissors. Matthew Harvey's death is much discussed in the city. The scissors are among the tools of his trade - for Harvey is a renowned cutter and painter of shades, or silhouettes, the latest fashion in portraiture. It soon becomes clear that the murderer must be one of the artist's last sitters, and the people depicted in the final six shades made by him become the key suspects. But who are they? And where are they to be found?
Later, in November, a clever but impoverished young gentleman called Fletcher Rigge languishes in the debtor's prison, until a letter arrives containing a bizarre proposition from the son of the murdered man. Rigge is to be released for one month, but in that time, he must find the killer. If he fails, he will be incarcerated again, possibly for life.
And so, with everything at stake, and equipped only with copies of the distinctive silhouettes, Fletcher Rigge begins his search across the snow-covered city, and enters a world of shadows...
About the Author
Andrew Martin is a journalist and novelist. His critically praised Jim Stringer<.i> series began with
The Necropolis Railway in 2002. The following titles in the series,
Murder at Deviation Junction and
Death on a Branch Line, were shortlisted for the CWA Ellis Peters Historical Crime Award and, in 2008, Andrew Martin was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library Award. The Somme Stations won the 2011 CWA Ellis Peters Historical Crime Award.
Industry Reviews
Drier than a cream cracker; northern not only in vernacular but saturninity which envelops like a quilt giving off cigar smoke and port;
memorable characters who vie for oddity or unpleasantness . . .
Andrew Martin's splendidly drawn snow-smothered York is a perfect foil for his sooty 18th-century gubbins and goings on, in which little turns out to be precisely black - or precisely white. - Evening Standard
'The book's many voices are
written with skill, and York's parallel worlds of fashion and poverty are
vividly created. The physical book itself is
stunning - the front of the hardback is swirled with soot, and the pages are black-edged.
An enticing and clever book, inside and out'. Book Of The Month. - The Times
A literary thriller of great ingenuity and originality - Sunday Times
A
fascinating read - Catholic Herald
In a
cunningly constructed narrative made up of letters, diaries and other documents, the mystery is unravelled with a nod to the 18th-century novel while
remaining bang up-to-date . . .
Strong characters, humour and a dash of the picaresque flesh out a
sophisticated, confident and intriguing treat. - Daily Mail
Exquisitely written . . .
Soot is a
well-made whodunnit, an
artful pastiche and an
atmospheric recreation of Georgian England . . . Comic but never arch, it is an
artfully sophisticated entertainment - Irish Times
