A Parliamentary Killing

The year is 1682. It is 12 February. As MP Thomas Thynn is riding in a carriage down Pall Mall, he is shot dead. A gun and a green ribbon are found at the scene.

Charles II has no heir and these are turbulent times. Plotters are everywhere, aligned either with the Catholic James I or the Protestant Duke of Monmouth. The green ribbon was a symbol of the Green Ribbon Club, a radical republican organisation, but was this simply a political killing?

Could it be personal? Thynn is a playboy and his wealthy heiress wife Lady Elizabeth Percy has left him, amid rumours that the marriage had not been consummated. What was her connection to the mysterious Swedish Count Konigsmark, a known mercenary and cardsharp who had challenged Thynn to a duel?

In their investigations, police must crack a coded letter and untangle the web of spies and counter spies in their hunt for the killer.

The five shots that killed Thynn rule out the single shot pistol at the scene as the murder weapon. In fact this belonged to Thynn. The weapon used was a blunderbuss, the weapon of choice of mercenary Konigsmark, who was infatuated with Elizabeth. Meanwhile a coded letter reveals that Thynne and the Duke of Monmouth were being shadowed by a man loyal to the king, known only as Cotter. A hidden reply at the bottom, using the relatively common clandestine substance of invisible ink, gives orders that Monmouth be killed.

In a final twist Thynn is implicated as counterplotting against Monmouth to join forces with the Catholic cause. Could Monmouth also be a suspect?

The authorities receive word that a man disguised as a woman has attempted to leave the country in Gravesend. A coat with a handkerchief marked with card diamonds unmasks the assassin as Count Konigsmark, angry at being rebuffed by Elizabeth.

Konigsmark is caught and charged with murder. However he bribed the jury and escaped. He was rejected by Lady Elizabeth and within a few years he was killed in battle.

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