Great series

Great short read to past the time while my son was at practice. Looking forward to reading the next book. ( )

London, 1663. Charlie Tuesday, the well-known thief taker, has been called to a gruesome murder of a housemaid in Bethnal Green. The maid's employer, Mr Fitzgilbert, insists that whoever took the girl's silver thimble has to be her killer and that his wife, accused of witchcraft because of her strange fits, is innocent. Together with his friend John Smith Charlie must find the killer before Elizabeth Fitzgilbert burns at Tyburn.

I mistakenly bought this short story in the belief that it bridges volumes 1 and 2 in the Thief Taker series, when it is in fact a prequel, set a couple of years before the events in The Thief Taker. As such, it is a run-of-the-mill historical whodunit, which is strong on atmosphere, short as it is, but feels rushed (a little more detail would not have gone amiss) and suffers from a distinct lack of alternative culprits and a lack of editing (I believe that the publisher is a self-publishing platform). It doesn't add anything new to the character of Charlie Tuesday, though the appendix gives readers the opportunity to request a secret scene, not available in print, which promises to shed a bit more light on Charlie's mysterious past. ( )