'Blood on the Strand' is the second novel by Susanna Gregory featuring the spy Thomas Chaloner. It is set in Restoration London. Charles II is back on the throne and London is still a hotbed of dissenters and ex-Cromwellians.

The year is 1663 and Thomas Chaloner a member of the King's intelligence service returns to London from Ireland, after assisting in thwarting a planned revolt in Dublin. Chaloner realises that feeling in the capital have changed since he left, there is a taste of rebellion in the London air. While investigating the shooting of a supposed beggar during a royal event, Chaloner discovers that far from being a beggar the man has links to the Company of Barber-Surgeons.

Meanwhile his employer, the Earl of Clarendon, is involved in a feud with the Earl of Bristol; and an innocent man is about to take the long drop in Newgate prison. Chaloner has his work cut out trying to protect Clarendon, discover who murdered the supposed vagrant, and try to save an innocent man from the executioner.

Although I personally like the Matthew Bartholomew series by Susanna Gregory slightly better, there's no denying that this is a very good historical detective novel. The descriptions of Restoration London and its sounds and smells are very well done; there's a whole host of colourful and well-developed characters (many of them historical, such as the Duke of Buckingham and Lady Castlemaine); and the story moves along at a brisk pace, with lots of twists and turns. ( )

This wasn't actually worth the effort. The pace throughout is quite slow, and the ending is very disappointing, relying on unexplained tricks, leaving the whole thing unresolved. ( )

This book is set in London in the spring of 1663. This is near the beginning of the Restoration when all of the United Kingdom is trying to get over Cromwell's Puritan reign. Charles II is back as monarch, and he and his entourage are involved in all kinds of intrigue. The quarrel between the Earl of Clarendon and the earl of Bristol was at its height at this time, and there is more than enough work for Chaloner as he spies for the Earl of Clarendon. It is also a time of great public interest in the science of disection. Barber/Surgeons went to great lengths to get the cadavers that they required for their studies. Chaloner finds himself in the middle of intrigue, body snatchers, and murder and mayhem.
The best thing about Ms. Gregory's books is the historical fact that she builds her fiction around, and that is very apparent here. She makes Restoration England come alive under her pen. This is not an era that has a lot of fiction built around it, so it is interesting to see what life was like then. ( )