Three hundred fifty years separate two pairs of detectives, but they’re linked more closely than either would suspect in Evie Hawtrey’s intriguing mystery, And By Fire. While I found the contemporary police procedural more fascinating, the storyline that dealt with the Great Fire of London of 1666 was raw and tragic. Hawtrey vividly portrays both time periods.

DI Nigella Parker has terrible memories of a fire when she was a child. Now, she’s “the moth” for the Crime Investigation Directorate of the City of London Police force. She has an affinity for fire cases. It’s no surprise when she’s teamed up with DI Colm O’Leary of Scotland Yard when they’re called to an unusual case. Someone burned a wooden figure, and left it by Sir Christopher Wren’s monument to the Great Fire. Parker and O’Leary can brush that off as a prank, but when a body is found at the next fire, they know they have a killer. It’s a brilliant killer with an obsession for art, and an unnatural obsession with churches designed by Wren.

In 1666, Christopher Wren has his own obsession. He wants to tear down St. Paul’s Cathedral and build his own church with his own design for a dome. However, he’s competing with architects who want to repair St. Paul’s, or have their own plans for the church.

Lady Margaret Dove is a Maid of Honour to Queen Catherine Braganza at Whitehall Palace. She’s always had a heart condition, and has suffered through medieval treatments. Despite her fainting spells and shortness of breath at times, she loves science, so she sneaks out on the palace balcony when there’s a fireworks show. That’s where she meets Etienne Belland, a fireworks maker to Charles II. Because he appreciates her love of knowledge and science, he helps her sneak out of the palace and visit Bradish and Son, a bookseller. That’s where the pair bumps into Sir Christopher Wren.

These two storylines collide when Parker finds a witness statement that Lady Margaret Dove left behind in a book. Following the Great Fire of London, she confronted someone she saw as a killer. Now, with a new interest in the churches designed by Wren, Parker and O’Leary also have to follow, and eventually confront a killer.

Hawtrey does an excellent job developing her characters in both time periods. It’s interest in police procedurals that led to my preference for the contemporary storyline. However, Hawtrey vividly brings the Great Fire of London and the aftermath to life in the alternate storyline. Admittedly, I was more disappointed in the solution to the contemporary crime. Hawtrey challenges historical perception with the interesting solution to the crime of 1666. Fans of historical cold cases and police procedurals set in London may find this book to be intriguing.

Evie Hawtrey’s website is https://eviehawtrey.com/

And By Fire by Evie Hawtrey. Crooked Lane Books, 2022. ISBN 9781643859934 (hardcover), 336p.

FTC Full Disclosure – I received a galley to review for a journal.