Source: ARC from Moonflower books – thank you.
I rather mislaid my reviewing mojo this week. I couldn’t settle down to write anything; I had too many other things going round in my head. It’s also taken me most of the week to read a single book. However, I’m now on half term for the next fortnight, and tomorrow morning, my new bed will be delivered! With increasing arthritis in knees, hips and ankles, my ageing matress wasn’t offering the comfort and support I needed any more, even with a good topper. I hotfooted it to indie showroom Abingdon Beds and I went there – choosing a 5′ luxury traditional pocket sprung mattress by Devon company Enchanted House – no memory foam for me! Then I picked a modern headboard and plain divan base, which are being upholstered in petrol blue velour. They gave me an excellent deal on the price too. I’m looking forward to doing some reading in bed on all the half term mornings where I don’t need to get up!
Meanwhile, it’s reached Sunday afternoon, a whole week after I drafted my last post, and I’m finally sitting down to get stuck in. Here’s the first of my outstanding reviews.
Seething Lane by Jack Jewers
This is the second of Jewer’s Samuel Pepys mysteries, following his debut, The Lost Diary of Samuel Pepys, published in 2022. There is no need to have read the first to enjoy the second. In these books, Jewers has taken his inspiration from Pepys own diaries which told of everyday life in London in the 17th century, taking us up to 1669, Seething Lane, which is where Samuel and his wife Elisabeth lived, is set the year after, in 1670, thus continuing them fictionally – with the addition of Pepys becoming an investigator for the King, as a ‘kings man’ being admitted to the ‘most secret Order of the Royal Oak’, and thus living a double-life alongside his day-job as a civil servant on the Navy Board at the Admiralty.
As the novel begins, Pepys is investigating a charismatic preacher by name of Inigo Wrath, to see if there is any connection with leaflets appearing around London, saying ‘Monmouth Shall Never Inherit’. (The Duke of Monmouth is Charles II’s favourite illegitimate son). Wrath will turn up dead soon under suspicious circumstances, as will anyone connected to printing the leaflets.
Back home Pepys is working hard, making up for lost time on his Navy work, hoping to convince his assistant Will Hewer, (who existed), that he is on the ball, not slacking because he’d having an affair when he’s on top secret business. It’s the dead of winter, and when a young man turns up asking for help. Pepys is rather preoccupied and doesn’t take him seriously, he needs to get to the theatre – Nell Gwyn (note 1 ‘n’ only) is returning to the stage.
Then Pepys is got out of bed by guards come to fetch him. He’s taken off to a location nearby where a body has been found – meeting his boss Thomas Marshall there. The corpse is that of Henry Fitzwilliam, a libertine aristocrat and close friend of the Duke of Monmouth. Investigating the murder, Pepys will discover that he is linked to his visitor, and also that all roads will lead back to the theatre on Drury Lane.
They come up with a plan, so that Pepys can legitimately be in the theatre – as the backer to a performance of Shakespeare to be put on for the king, and starring Nell of course, the extra rehearsal time afforded by the money will allow Pepys several more days to investigate the mystery of Fitzwilliam’s death. Pepys is portrayed as a theatre lover, but with no experience of how productions are put on, so this gives Jewers the opportunity to give us a masterclass in restoration theatre production. The stage manager turns out to be particularly useful in this (and in his investigations). Biding time until she can get her own works staged is none of than Aphra Behn. Pepys also gets to interview Lady Castlemaine, the King’s mistress, who is now out of favour and being edged out of court which gives an interesting contrast with Nell Gwyn.
The mystery gets increasingly complicated and I’m not going to explain it further save that Pepys will be forced to take Will into his confidence. Pepys’ wife Elisabeth died in 1669, however, in this novel, she is yet alive, although ailing.
I was glad of the dramatis personae list at the start of the book, alongside the maps – helping me keep straight with who was who, especially in the palace. Apart from being full of authentic historical detail, Jewers has created a bawdy romp of a mystery, the theatre is an earthy place! That the novel is written as an extension of Pepys’ diaries is largely an illusion – not that I’ve actually read the original diaries, only the odd quote here and there – but with the bulk of the novel covering just a fortnight in around 423 pages of 471 in total is surely stretching it. But who cares! It was huge fun, and I’d love to go back to the first one which I have a copy of somewhere.
Source: Review copy courtesy of Moonflower Books. Jack Jewers, Seething Lane (Sept 2026), hardback, 471 pages.
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