Soot: The Times's Historical Fiction Book of the Month - Softcover

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

A literary thriller, set mainly in late 18th-century York. Highly atmospheric and populated with a cast of unforgettable characters, it brings to life 18th-century England with its villains and heroes.