*** Read Shona MacLean''s new novel, The Cromarty Library Circle, out now! ***

London, 1656.

Oliver Cromwell is now a king in all but name. Three conspirators, an alliance of Royalists and disillusioned Parliamentarians, plan to assassinate him.

Seeker, though, is preoccupied by the discovery of the body of a man ravaged by a bear - creatures not seen in the capital since bear baiting was banned. The hunt for the killer leads from Kent''s coffee house on Cornhill, to a German clockmaker in Clerkenwell, to the desolate Lambeth Marshes where no one should venture at night.

As the motivation behind the murder becomes clearer, Seeker realises just what - and who - he is up against. The Royalists in exile have sent to London their greatest fighter, a man who will stop at nothing to ensure the Restoration.

Praise for The Seeker series

''A gripping tale of crime and sedition in an unsettled city'' Sunday Times

''One of the best historical crime series out there'' Crime Review