The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson

 

Antonia Hodgson’s novel, The Devil in the Marshalsea, is exactly the kind of historical mystery I enjoy. Most of the story takes place in the Marshalsea debtors’ prison, where a rakehelly parson’s son is imprisoned for a debt of £20. Doesn’t sound like much? At the time, a maidservant might earn only £5 a year. Conditions in the prison are worse than you can imagine. They’re worse than I could imagine in spite of being hardened to some of the less pleasant features of the eighteenth century. Tr...