London, 1716, and winter has come with a vengeance. With the river Thames frozen over, Jonas Flynt’s life is about to get more complicated. Well, even more complicated for a spy with his own agenda and morals, that is. While on a job following a person of interest, Flynt finds himself saving the life of Justice Geoffrey Dumont. He finds a new ally in the judge, but that;s not going to last for long.

When Flynt is approached by Belle, a courtesan, to help save her young friend Sam from a murder charge. Sam was a male sex-worker, accused of murdering a client – Justice Dumont – in the street, but Belle is convinced of her friend’s innocence. Both Sam and the judge were summoned to the scene of the crime, it seems, but whoever did it has made a grave mistake – because now Jonas Flynt is on their trail…

The second book in the Jonas Flynt series, after An Honourable Thief, my book of the month for this January. That was a first-rate historical thriller, rather than a whodunnit. That wasn’t a criticism, but the author did say that the follow-up was more of a whodunit. That’s definitely true, as there is the ongoing mystery as to who killed Dumont, but it’s still more of a thriller than anything else.

There are many strands at play here, with the murder being just one of them. Skelton does an excellent job of weaving the various strands around the central cast of characters, so nobody is notably side-lined when the plot focus changes. At the centre of everything is Jonas Flynt, a fascinating multi-faceted lead character, but many other strong characters populate the pages too. On top of that, the author does a fascinating job of recreating the time, both in imagery and in language, using enough vocabulary from the time, while still making things perfectly understandable. It’s quite a feat for the reader to never find themselves pulled out of the period by modern languages or sensibilities, and this never happens here.

Oh, and the ending… Heartbreaking.

Historical crime books that feel this… genuine… are few and far between, so please, if you like the genre, do take a look at this series. Let’s hope it runs for a long time.