Stunning commercial historical fiction, perfect for fans of Tracy Chevalier The year is 1792 and it's winter in Berkeley Square. As the city sleeps, the night-watchman keeps a cautious eye over the streets, and another eye in the back doors of the great and the good. Then one fateful night he comes across the body of Pierre Renard, the eponymous silversmith, lying dead, his throat cut and his valuables missing. It could be common theft, committed by one of the many villains who stalk the square, but as news of the murder spreads, it soon becomes clear that Renard had more than a few enemies, all with their own secrets to hide. At the centre of this web is Mary, the silversmith's wife. Ostensibly theirs was an excellent pairing, but behind closed doors their relationship was a dark and at times sadistic one and when we meet her, Mary is withdrawn and weak, haunted by her past and near-mad with guilt. Will she attain the redemption she seeks and what, exactly, does she need redemption for…? Rich, intricate and beautifully told, this is a story of murder, love and buried secrets. 'A dense, intricate historical thriller centering around the murder of a silversmith - in the tradition of Iain Pears' An Instance of the Fingerpost and Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall' Sophie Hannah and Janet Todd, judges of the Lucy Cavendish Prize
Author
Sophia Tobin was raised on the Isle of Thanet in Kent. Having graduated from the Open University, she moved to London to study History of Art, then worked for a Bond Street antique dealer for six years, specialising in silver and jewellery. Inspired by her research into a real eighteenth-century silversmith, Tobin began to write The Silversmith’s Wife, which was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish College Fiction Prize, judged by Sophie Hannah and Professor Janet Todd. It was published by Simon & Schuster in January 2014. Tobin’s second novel, The Widow’s Confession, will be published in January 2015. She works in a library and lives in London with her husband.
