The Sunday Times Best Historical Fiction Books 2022 ‘Lloyd once again mixes real historical events with his imagination to enjoyable effect.’

The New York Times ‘A deliciously preposterous adventure …’

Publishers Weekly (Starred review) ‘Outstanding … Lloyd skilfully combines an endearingly flawed lead, jaw-dropping twists, and the fraught, conspiracy-laden politics of the Stuart Restoration. Iain Pears fans will be enthralled.’

CrimeReads ‘Lloyd once again infuses his world with the sights, sounds, and smells of the late 17th century…for what’s bound to be one of the best historical novels of the year.’

Leonora Nattrass, author of Black Drop and Blue Water ‘Splendid seventeenth-century scientific speculations underpin this most enjoyable of literary ‘demonstrations’.’

Christopher Fowler, author of the Bryant & May novels ‘He [Robert J. Lloyd] has created a truly convincing and gripping historical series.’

Andrew Child ‘What a treat it has been to read these last two books.’

London, 1679 – A year has passed since the attempt to murder King Charles II, but London is still a viper’s nest of rumoured Catholic conspiracies, and of plots against them in turn. When Harry Hunt—estranged from his mentor Robert Hooke—is summoned to the remote and windswept marshes of Norfolk, he is at first relieved to get away from the place.

But in Norfolk, he finds that some Royal workers shoring up a riverbank have made a grim discovery—the skeleton of a dwarf. Harry is able to confirm that the skeleton is that of Captain Jeffrey Hudson, a prominent member of the court once famously given to the Queen in a pie. Except no one knew Hudson was dead, because another man had been impersonating him.

The hunt for the impersonator, clearly working as a spy, will take Harry to Paris, another city bedevilled by conspiracies and intrigues, and back, with encounters along the way with a flying man and a cross-dressing swordswoman—and to the uncovering of a plot to kill the Queen and all the Catholic members of her court. But where? When?

The Poison Machine is a brilliantly imagined historical thriller that will delight listeners of its critically acclaimed predecessor, The Bloodless Boy.