Leonora Nattrass Books In Order

Publication Order of Laurence Jago Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Cambridge Studies in Romanticism Books

Leonora Natrass is a bestselling author of historical mystery fiction that is best known for her debut fiction work “Black Drop.” “Black Drop” was so popular that it would garner critical acclaim from some of the biggest publications in the writing industry.

In fact, the novel was the winner of the Times Book of the Year. Her second novel “Blue Water” made the longlist for the Crime Novel of the Year Award by Theakston Old Peculiar. It was also named a Waterstones Thriller of the Month.
Leonora now has at least four titles to her name as she usually publishes at least one novel every year.

Leonora has for the longest time been a fan of the history of the eighteenth century. As such, it was not a surprise that when she went to college, she decided to study politics and eighteenth-century literature.
She would then spend more than a decade as a lecturer of English. It was also during this time that she published several works on William Cobbett.

After more than ten years of working a day job, she decided to leave it all behind and become a full-time author. Natrass retired to Cornwall to make her home in a seventeenth-century house.
All around her are meadows for her Ryeland sheep whose fleece she also loves to spin into jumpers when she is not writing her novels.

Just like most authors, it was not so easy for Leonora Natrass to become a published author. But after struggling for several years, she finally signed up with Viper an Imprint of Serpent’s Tail.
The imprint would publish her newest whodunnit as part of a two-book deal. The imprint secured Commonwealth and United Kingdom rights and they would then publish her debut in 2021.
The debut novel was described as a political thriller that draws from the real events from 1794 that had all manner of chaos.

The United Kingdom then was at war with France, navigating the deathly treason trials and having peace negotiations with the new American republic.

According to the publisher, Leonora Natrass is an author that pens novels that are both compelling whodunnits and also rich historical fiction at the same time.
She has a flair and feeling for the eighteenth century as she can put her readers right into the streets of London during the period that you get the feeling of being there as it happens.

Leonora Natrass’ novel “Black Drop,” tells the story of a reluctant spy, gentleman, and clerk Laurence Jago. The work is set in July 1974 in London where rumors of revolution are running rife.
Thomas Hardy is a political radical who is about to be charged with treason. Moreover, negotiations with the American colonies that declared independence have not been going so well while Britain has been getting a beating in its war with France.
Jago clerks for the Foreign Office and increasingly relies on the “Black Drop” to reduce the pain of his nightmares. Meanwhile, someone leaked some sensitive letters to the press that may put the British Army in jeopardy and the lead suspect is Laurence.

But then things get interesting when he stumbles upon the body of a colleague that had supposedly taken his own life. The dead man is soon blamed for the leak but Laurence is certain that his friend is innocent and that he had been killed.
He had hidden his own secrets from his influential employers for years and at a time when the slightest suspicion of treason could be the end of someone, how will he find the man responsible without incriminating himself?

“Blue Water” by Leonora Natrass is another brilliant work that is set on a ship heading to Philadelphia during some very turbulent times.
On the seventh day of a voyage, a cormorant brought death on board and this novel is the report of Laurence Jago, a disgraced former clerk with the Foreign Office.

Jago’s mission is to help the civil servant who has been charged with delivering a treaty to the United States Congress to persuade them against joining with the French to fight Britain.
But there is a tragic incident that leaves the civil servant dead and Laurence the only man who can prevent an international disaster.

He finally has the chance to redeem himself but the civil servant happens to have been the only one who knew where the treaty was hidden on the ship.
Searching the ship, he soon realizes that most of the passengers including an Irish actress, an American plantation owner, and fugitive French aristocrats also want to find the treaty but for their own selfish reasons.
When there is another death, Laurence has to become an amateur sleuth as he tries to find the killer before he is killed too.

It is an interesting novel that has been compared to the works of the likes of S.J. Parris, Laura Shepherd-Robinson, and Andrew Taylor.

Leonora Natrass’ novel “Scarlet Town” is another novel that continues to follow the life and times of Laurence Jago of the Foreign Office.

After he was disgraced, he left the United States with William Philpott the journalist and larger-than-life employer. They had come very close to Philpott getting imprisoned for libel and had only survived by the skin of their teeth.
They head back to Helston, Cornwall which is Laurence’s hometown where they hope to recuperate and rest. However, they soon find themselves right in the middle of a chaotic election which has caused all manner of divisions among the residents.
In the rotten borough, only two men are eligible to vote and when one of them is found murdered in suspicious circumstances, Laurence is charged with investigating on behalf of the Duke of Leeds his old master.

But this is not an easy investigation as rival political factions engage in all manner of machinations. When the second elector is killed, poisoned by unknown people, Pythagoras Jago the town doctor who is also Laurence’s cousin is the main suspect.

Suddenly, Laurence is in the middle of generations of petty rivalries and bad blood but still holds the fate of his cousin in his hands.