A Thief's Blood, by Douglas Skelton review: 'a hero as ruthless and resourceful as James Bond'

Set in the filthy backstreets and elegant coffee houses of early Georgian London, Douglas Skelton’s new crime novel is a compelling read, writes Allan Massie

Douglas Skelton

Literary modes come and go, but crime is rarely out of fashion. Two hundred years ago there was a vogue for novels about London thieves, cut-throats and highwaymen. One of the masters of the genre then was Harrison Ainsworth, recently depicted in a Zadie Smith novel as a almost completely forgotten novelist. Not quite so, actually, some of his novels being still in print, while the influence of his Newgate Jail and the Tyburn Gallows can still be spotted, Douglas Skelton's A Company of Rogues sequence being a splendid example.

A Thief's Blood is the fifth book in the series. More than one thief bleeds horribly and many innocents copiously in this tale set in London in 1718. Its hero, Jonas Flynt, a Scot of dubious or uncertain pedigree who served as a sergeant at Marlborough's bloodiest battle, Malplaquet, is as bold and ruthless a killer-agent as James Bond, and even more resourceful.

The “Company of Rogues" to which Flynt belongs is an official or perhaps semi-official counter-espionage agency, run by the one-armed Colonel Charter, Flynt's commanding-officer in the recent wars. He now orders Flynt to locate and deal with a mysterious man known as "Lombre", possibly a French agent, or perhaps a Jacobite one, now in London and evidently up to no good.

Though the search for Lombre carries us through the book, it is mostly in the background, interest taken over by two grisly murders in which man, wife and young children are all killed in very bloody style. These murders are so horrible that they arouse public revulsion, even raising the possibility of mob action, so Flynte must take a hand.

He turns first to a criminal boss called The Admiral with whom he has good relations, though he has to surrender his pistols before each meeting. He also questions another crime boss, Jonathan Wild, self-styled "Thief-taker", but both men seem genuinely appalled by the crime. Its circumstances, or features, remind Charter of a crime by a soldier who served under him in France and then escaped justice and disappeared, so Flynte is set on his trail too. This leads him into the darkest and most squalid parts of London, seeking out first this suspect’s brother, Caleb, a crime boss with aspirations to better himself. Another suggestion leads him to Bedlam, the famous lunatic asylum.

The plot is developed slowly, but the novel is full of incident, much horrid often confusing. If you are willing to surrender some incredulity, however, it becomes very gripping. Flynt himself is, admittedly, somewhat too Bondish, too easily a master in very nasty confrontations, and of course he has a difficult love-life with a girl once an imported slave, sold to a brothel where, however, she was fortunate enough to come under the care of an admirable Madame who is genuinely fond of her and thinks Flynt an unsuitable partner.

The picture of low-life criminality, the taverns, the slum houses, is very satisfying and Skelton doesn't offer too much in the way of "thieves’ cant" - just enough to provide period flavour. Flynt speaks what one may best call neutral English. On the whole, Skelton fights shy of much in the way of what we used to call "tushery."

As a picture of early Georgian London, with its elegant coffee houses existing only a few minutes’ walk from scenes of revolting squalor, it rings very true. It offers a persuasive back-cloth to the brutality and filth of so much of London's life - Skelton has done enough research to make his picture compelling, not so much that it smothers the story.

It is a crowded book, as overcrowded, you may think, as the worst slums of the city, and it contains so many incidents and switches of plot as to make you dizzy. It works, however, because Skelton has the storyteller’s essential gift: the ability to lead you on, either eager to know what happens next.

A Thief's Blood, by Douglas Skelton, Canelo, £18