Within days, he finds himself caught between the town’s two rival theatre managers (each backed by different commercial interests), but discovers solace in the arms of his employer’s daughter, Bessie, who has a penchant for men wearing military wigs in bed. Things soon go wrong. Facing banishment from Newcastle, his fortunes sink further when his employer is found murdered. Though his first instinct is to make a bolt for it, Bessie uses her feminine wiles to persuade a reluctant Jack to track down the perpetrator.
In his bungling attempts to find the killer, Jack is plunged into a world of blackmail, power struggles, hired ruffians, suspicious lawmen and unscrupulous spies – and is constantly haunted by his Garrick lie. Could the very fate of Britain lie in his quivering hands? The whole experience is the sort of nightmare from which the feckless Flyford would normally run a mile, but life isn’t that simple.
About the Author
Torquil R. MacLeod was born in Edinburgh and brought up in the north east of England. After brief spells in teaching and in insurance, he worked in advertising agencies in Birmingham, Glasgow and Newcastle; since 2000 he has been a freelance copywriter. He lives in Cumbria with his wife Susan. Sweet Smell of Murder is his first historical crime fiction novel. He is also the author of the Scandinavian crime novels, the Malmö Mysteries.