Book Review :A Cruel Necessity, A John Grey Historical Mystery, by L. C. Tyler By Guest Reviewer Gillian Somerville-Arjat

Amazon kindle £10.44 HB £19.99
PB (May 2015) £8.99

 It is 1657. 
Cromwell is rumoured to be sick. At Westminster his spymaster, John Thurloe, sits at the heart of a web of spies and double-agents, opening letters, decrypting codes, sending them on. In Bruges Charles II and his entourage sit and wait. Loyalties are shifting. A whiff of regime change hangs in the air.

Back in his native Essex village with his new-minted Cambridge degree and his focus on a future career in Law, John Grey thinks he knows a thing or two. After a celebratory night on the tiles he finds a stranger with his throat cut lying face down on the village dungheap. This must be investigated, right? However, the local magistrate seems dilatory, there are pigs in the lock-up and hard facts prove elusive. Whom can he trust? Who is on whose side? Does Grey really have the first clue about what is going on?

Fans of Tyler’s Tressider-Thirkettle series will be familiar with the author’s witty, even subversive take on the crime genre. This new departure into historical crime does not disappoint. The characters are engaging, the dialogue sharp, the period well researched, the mystery absorbing. But beware. This is crime as clever entertainment, not for those who prefer their crime sober, serious and substantial.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=LC%20Tyler%20a%20cruel%20necessity