OLD NEWS
September 2022
At last the Beast has left home. The Beast is the sixth novel in the Marwood and Lovett Restoration series. The typescript has slunk into the undergrowth, on its way to both my editor and my agent. Why the Beast? Well, this book has been a Beast to write. Of course all books are beast to write, but for some reason this one has been a bigger beast than usual. It deserves its capital letter. They say hard writing makes easy reading…
The previous working title was The Dark Queen, but it's now called THE SHADOWS OF LONDON, which I hope you'll all agree is a much better title. UK publication is currently scheduled for 2 March 2023.
In July I was at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It was my first major live festival since Covid struck, which made it special. That and the people, of course. You can see some of the riff-raff I had to consort with here:
In other news, I review occasionally, mainly in The Times, the Spectator and the Guardian. Here are links to my most recent - the Spectator review of Martin Edwards' Life of Crime, his witty and authoritative history of the genre, and the Observer review of Robert Harris's Act of Oblivion.March 2022
The Royal Secret, the fifth and latest in the Marwood and Lovett Restoration series, has just been published in paperback. It's available from all good booksellers, among them Waterstones (whose edition includes bonus material) and of course Amazon. In hardback it was a Sunday Times Top Twenty bestseller.
It's also available as an ebook and audiobook, of course. For this month only, the Kindle ebook edition in on sale for .99p.
At present I'm writing the sixth Marwood and Lovett novel. I won't say the end is in sight, but I'm pretty sure that I can see something shimmering on the horizon. The provisional title is The Dark Queen, but of course that's subject to change. UK publication will probably be in Spring 2023.
Several of my other novels are currently available as Kindle deals. At .99p I couldn't resist stocking up on these three novels from my Lydmouth Series set in the 1950s: An Air That Kills, Death's Own Door and Naked To The Hangman. Finally, my very first novel, Caroline Minuscule, published 40 years ago, is also available for .99p, when both its author and the world as a whole were very different from now. But don't delay - these offers are time-limited too.
Talking of Lydmouth, I’ve contributed a new Lydmouth short story, called 'Wrong Notes' to Music of the Night, the latest anthology from the Crime Writers’ Association, edited by Martin Edwards and published by Flame Tree Press.
In other news, I review occasionally in The Times and the Spectator. I'll be teaching an Arvon fiction course at The Hurst in May, and a morning workshop about plot and narrative for the John Moore Museum at Tewkesbury in July. I'll also be appearing at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Fiction Festival in Harrogate, also in July, See Events for full details.
June 2021
My latest novel is The Royal Secret, the fifth in the Marwood and Lovett Restoration series. It's a Sunday Times Top Twenty bestseller.
'Always riveting… With all his customary deftness and skill, Taylor weaves a colourful, complicated plot involving royal secrets, foreign spies in London and a mangy lion…' Nick Rennison, Sunday Times
'One rereads a Taylor sentence not because his meaning’s unclear but simply to enjoy it afresh. As one can do with his story as a whole... a pleasure from start to finish' Andrew Rosenheim, Spectator
'His characters feel like living people who face real problems in a strange yet instantly recognisable vanished world. Historical crime doesn't get better than this' Mark Sanderson, The Times Crime Club Star Pick.
‘The fifth in Taylor's masterful series of Restoration novels… Typically exuberant fare from the ever-reliable Taylor, incorporating a delicious trip to the hot-bed of intrigue that is the French court’ Barry Forshaw, Financial Times
'People often ask me for a list of my favourite authors. Andrew Taylor’s name is always in the first five…I love this series… an incredible portrait of London after the Great Fire. Dirt, grime, gold, glitter – Taylor serves up all of it…Great fun and perfect summer getaway reading' Margaret Cannon, Globe and Mail
In the UK, signed copies are available from Waterstones (a special edition with bonus material), Goldsboro Books, and Rossiter Books. It can also be found at other good bookshops, as well as on Amazon.
And now I am at work on the next novel in the series.
November 2020
The King's Evil won the Gold Crown for 2020, the prize awarded by the Historical Writers Association for the best novel of the historical novel of the year.
The Last Protector was selected as a Guardian Book of the Year.
April 2020
The Last Protector, the fourth Marwood and Lovett novel, has just been published. Set in the violent, politically charged Spring 1668, it deals with surviving members of the Cromwell family after the death of Oliver. Meanwhile, London is slowly recovering from the Great Fire two years earlier.
The first review has just come in: it's from the Sunday Times, and it's a cracker from Nick Rennison: ‘Taylor confirms his status as one of our finest writers of historical thrillers.’
And now on publication day comes another, from Natasha Cooper in the Literary Review: 'Taylor is so at ease with the period… There is colour, violence, devotion, courage and fun here. What more could anyone ask of a crime novel?'
From Antonia Senior in The Times: ‘Taylor is on reliably good form in this fourth instalment of a series that effortlessly blends history and mystery.’
The fabulous cover is based on a contemporary print of Inigo Jones's Covent Garden and is by Andrew Davidson Illustration.
December 2019
The King’s Evil (HarperCollins) has been chosen as a 2019 Book of the Year by both the Sunday Times and the Financial Times. For a selection of reviews, click here.
Books can have a long life. HarperCollins reissued The Second Midnight, my long-lost thriller about an English boy abandoned in Nazi-occupied Prague (November 2019) which I originally published in 1988.
April 2019
The King’s Evil (HarperCollins), the third title in the Marwood-Lovett series, is a Sunday Times bestseller.
’this is historical crime fiction at its dazzling best’ - Guardian
‘Taylor, one of the best historical crime writers today, is on great form with this novel’ - The Times
‘Could be the best yet… vivid and compelling’ - The Observer
‘Few historical novelists write with more authority and a greater sense of authenticity’ - Sunday Times
January 2019
The entire Lydmouth Series (Hodder & Stoughton) reissued in paperback and ebook, equipped with stunning new covers. Audible has recorded all eight novels.
