The Servant

"A gripping immersive crime drama with a heroine you'll be rooting for from the first line. Highly recommended." Imogen Robertson, author of Instruments of Darkness

1765.

London.

Young Hannah Hubert may be the granddaughter of a French merchant and the daughter of a Spitalfields silk weaver, but she has come down in the world.

Sent one spring day as maidservant to a disgraced aristocrat, she finds herself in a house full of mysteries - with a locked room and strange auctions being held behind closed doors.

As a servant, she has little power but - unknown to her employers - she can read. And it is only when she uses her education to uncover the secrets of the house, that she realises the peril she is in.

Hannah is unable to turn to the other servant, Peg, who is clearly terrified of their employers and keeps warning her to find alternative work.

But help might come from Thomas, the taciturn farmer delivering milk to the neighbourhood, or from Jack Twyford, a friendly young man apprenticed to his uncle's bookselling business. Yet Thomas is still grieving for his late wife - and can she trust Jack, since his uncle is one of her master's associates?

Hannah soon discovers damning evidence she cannot ignore.

She must act alone, but at what price?

Maggie Richell-Davies was born in Newcastle and has a first-class honours degree from the Open University. She lives in Kent with her husband. The Servant is her first novel.