Honor’s Kingdom (Abel Jones Mysteries)

As casualty lists grimly mount in America's Civil War, the death of a lowly man of the cloth in London attracts an unaccountable degree of attention. Confederate agents seek warships for their struggling navy at any cost. The Union's representative to Britain -- the son and grandson of U.S. presidents -- maneuvers desperately to block them. And a federal officer with a limp and a Welsh lilt returns to the land he once left in hope of a better life.In a stunning re-creation of 1860s London and Glasgow that reaches from the worst slums in Europe to the lobbies of Parliament, Owen Parry brings the past to ravishing life. Grotesque murders multiply as Major Abel Jones pursues a monstrous killer who may be a well-connected Confederate agent or a ghost from Jones's bloody past in India -- or both. England's political leaders -- including Benjamin Disraeli -- appear to have a great deal to hide. Everyone seems determined to thwart Jones's search for justice -- but are they interested in supporting the Confederacy or in masking personal scandals? The threat of an ocean-spanning war hangs over each new crime as Jones struggles to find a rumored warship that would serve the Rebels as a wonder-weapon of the age -- and stop it from sailing. A music-hall girl of doubtful morals may hold the answers he needs -- if Jones, the appalled moralist, can keep her alive. No single identity is certain, no motive unmarred. And psychotic violence lurks behind well-tailored morning coats and flawless manners....Expanding his fictional panorama of the Civil War into the long-neglected international arena, Parry continues to portray not only a war, but a lost world. In the gorgeous tones of a prim, proud Methodistsoldier from the valleys of Wales, Parry conjures the sights, sounds, smells, and texture of the age with unparalleled authenticity, irresistible suspense, and droll humor. Featuring historical figures from Karl Marx to Anthony Trollope, this novel brims with the wonderfully rich characters that have become a hallmark of Parry's fiction. From deeds of hellish darkness to acts of transcendent kindness, "Honor's Kingdom" speeds irresistibly from the opening sentence to a startling, shockingly logical, and unforgettable conclusion.