Book Title: THE ART OF A LIE
Character Name: Hannah Cole
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
My father was my world. My mother died before I was born. The scents of stewing blackcurrants and pounded almonds bring back memories of how happy I was back then. Father would tell me stories. I still think of him when I read, or when I’m at work in the shop. Sometimes I imagine that I hear his tread on the stair.
What was your greatest talent?
Making a study of my customers in my confectionery shop. Nine times out of ten, I can predict what will tempt them. It is the confectioner’s principle art, anticipating wants and needs. People betray their desires in countless small ways.
Significant other?
My husband, Jonas, was murdered three months ago. He was set upon by robbers as he was leaving a Mayfair tavern. The constables have been unable to find his killer, but now Henry Fielding, the Chief Magistrate of Westminster, has taken personal charge of the case. I very much want to see justice for Jonas.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
I loved my husband dearly, but Jonas was a striver, a rising man. As well as the shop, he sat on the parish committee, and he dreamed of one day sitting in parliament. People said it was a mad dream for a shopkeeper to have, but with Jonas, you felt like anything was possible. But it meant he went out a lot. All those meetings and committees. There was so much about his life that I didn’t understand.
Where do you live?
In the London parish of St. James’s. I have lived there my entire life, in the rooms above our shop. Many wealthy people live in the grand streets and squares around us. Jonas hoped that one day we would join them, but I was always content with the life I had.
Do you have any enemies?
My suppliers don’t like that I kept on the shop after Jonas’s murder, because they don’t think women should be in trade. They are trying to take advantage of my lack of experience with the books by overcharging me. Their wives think I should have sold up and gone into the country. Marry again in time, to a kindly widower. But I will never marry again, and I love my shop!
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
My grandfather built this shop, when there were just fields to the north of Piccadilly. My father and mother died here. I cannot conceive of living anywhere else. I would do anything to keep hold of it. Anything.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
I keep three apprentices. Oscar is my trade apprentice. He has been with me for five years, learning the art of confectionery. Felix and Theodora are pauper apprentices from the workhouse. Felix serves as a doorman and keeps an eye out for robbers. Theo has the right look for a shopgirl and serves behind the counter.
What do you do for a living?
I am a confectioner, serving the finest people in St James’s. I count earls and duchesses amongst my customers. We serve cakes and comfits, macaroons and syllabubs and pastries. The shop is fitted out with mirrors and marble, and it sparkles like a jewel-box.
Greatest disappointment?
My marriage was never blessed with children. I still carry the ache inside me. I know the fault was mine, because we took the barley test. Each steeping a grain of barley in our urine and planting it in soil. Jonas’s took root, but mine did not.
Greatest source of joy?
When I see a customer’s face light up with pleasure, when they have eaten one of my delicacies. But there are too few customers at present, in this long, hot summer. A man came into my shop today, and he told me about an Italian delicacy called iced cream. I have an instinct that it might turn around the fortunes of my shop, if only I can learn how to make it.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
I love reading novels, the new worlds they open up. One of my favorites is Tom Jones, the latest novel by Mr. Fielding. I hope he writes another one. But then again, if he spent less time writing, he might catch Jonas’s killer?
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
I never gave Jonas the child that he craved. It was hard to endure my failure. Jonas struggled with it too. A son was the thing he wanted most, and he couldn’t have it.
What keeps you awake at night?
After Jonas died, when the shop was closed for mourning, I ran up debts. But no one would lend to a woman unproven in business, except at extortionate rates, secured against the house and shop. I know my moneylender believes that I’ll be forced to sell up eventually. But I can’t let that happen. I won’t!
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
Mr. Fielding has discovered that Jonas had a large sum of money in his bank account when he died. Nearly fifteen hundred pounds! A third of that money should come to me. It would be the answer to all my prayers. But Mr. Fielding believes that the money might have been illicitly acquired. I don’t know what to think. Surely Jonas wasn’t a thief? But even worse, Fielding has put a stay on the passage of probate while he investigates. All the money is held up, even the savings from our shop that I was going to use to clear my debts. If I don’t get my hands on that money soon, I will lose the shop. Perhaps I could help Fielding with his investigation?
Is there something that you need or want that you don’t have? For yourself or for someone important to you?
Sometimes I dream of those early days with Jonas. How happy we were. I used to pity all those poor girls who had never been adored by Jonas Cole. Sometimes I read about love in my novels, and I weep to know that I will never be adored like that again.
Why don’t you have it? What is in the way?
That’s the trouble with stories, especially the ones you write for yourself. Sometimes you think they’ve ended, when they’ve barely begun.
In 18th-century England, a widowed confectioner is drawn into a web of love, betrayal, and intrigue and a battle of wits in this masterful historical novel from the author of the “delicious puzzle-box of a novel” (The New York Times) and USA TODAY bestseller The Square of Sevens.
Following the murder of her husband in what looks like a violent street robbery, Hannah Cole is struggling to keep her head above water. Her confectionary shop on Piccadilly is barely turning a profit, her suppliers conspiring to put her out of business because they don’t like women in trade. Henry Fielding, the famous author-turned-magistrate, is threatening to confiscate the money in her husband’s bank account because he believes it might have been illicitly acquired. And even those who claim to be Hannah’s friends have darker intent.
Only William Devereux seems different. A friend of her late husband, Devereux helps Hannah unravel some of the mysteries surrounding his death. He also tells her about an Italian delicacy called iced cream, an innovation she is convinced will transform the fortunes of her shop. But their friendship opens Hannah to speculation and gossip and draws Henry Fielding’s attention her way, locking her into a battle of wits more devastating than anything she can imagine.
Mystery Historical | Fiction Literary | Thriller [Atria Books, On Sale: August 5, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9781668083093 / eISBN: 9781668083116]
Laura Shepherd-Robinson was born in Bristol in 1976. She has a BSc in Politics from the University of Bristol and an MSc in Political Theory from the London School of Economics.
Laura worked in politics for nearly twenty years before re-entering normal life to complete an MA in Creative Writing at City University. She lives in London with her husband, Adrian.
Blood & Sugar, her first novel, won the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown and the Specsaver’s Debut Crime Novel award, was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month, and a Guardian and Telegraph novel of the year. It was also shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and the Sapere Historical Dagger; the Amazon Publishing/Capital Crime Best Debut Novel; and the Goldsboro Glass Bell; and longlisted for the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year.
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