The Code for Killing

Dr. Adam Bascom, 18th-century physician and gentleman, is called to Norwich to treat a young man who’s been brutally assaulted and left with total memory loss. Why was the man attacked? What was he doing wandering on his own along the river bank late at night? Is his lack of memory real — or assumed to hide what is really happening?

The case becomes still more complex when Adam discovers the man was a key player in a dangerous game of espionage linked to the war brewing against Revolutionary France. More mysteries follow. One of the elite King's Messengers is murdered and his body dumped in the river. A file of intercepted French messages in cipher goes missing. Those involved in this business all risk death, but which of them has turned to killing to achieve his goals? It's up to Adam to uncover this dangerous conspiracy and stop a serious threat becoming a disaster.

Welcome to the surprisingly sophisticated world of 18th-century British intelligence — a story rich in excitement, deceit and subterfuge, involving the rarely revealed forerunners of MI5 and Bletchley Park. The Georgian secret service enjoyed royal patronage, extensive funding and a highly-developed network of informants; yet it could still be forced on occasion to rely on public-spirited amateurs like the determined Dr Adam Bascom. Where secrecy, treachery and hatred overlap, can Adam decipher the code that alone can direct him to where a killer hides?


Genre: Historical Mystery