CATHEDRAL OF GLASS

Martin Willis

RIGHTS AVAILABLE: World English, Translation, Film/TV and all other rights handled by the bks Agency

“From the opening page, Cathedral of Glass reflects the menace and the glory of turn-of-the-century Cardiff. Its tightly plotted mix of rich men, ambitious women, and an innovative investigator makes this historical crime novel feel uniquely timely. A dark and compelling addition to the genre.” — Lesley McDowell, author of Clairmont and Unfashioned Creatures

Cardiff, 1880s. A city of glass and ambition, where unimaginable wealth rubs shoulders with desperate poverty and murder stalks the streets.

Returning after years policing rural North Wales, Detective Inspector Ivor Evans finds himself plunged into the volatile heart of a booming port city. When two suspicious deaths are linked to a spectacular new shopping arcade — the prized development of powerful industrialist Frederick de Courcy Hamilton — Evans is drawn into a dangerous web of money, influence, and secrecy.

Aided by Glenmore Roberts, Cardiff’s first Black police constable, and Caroline Rate, the fiery and well-connected publican of the Westgate Hotel, Evans follows a trail that leads from the city’s grandest mansions to the lawless docklands. But his modern investigative methods, learnt from a French detective, are ridiculed by colleagues — and his enemies are both ruthless and powerful.

Blending the deductive traditions of Conan Doyle with sharp, contemporary insights into class, race, and Victorian society, Cathedral of Glass reveals a side of British history rarely seen. Set in fin de siècle Cardiff, the beating heart of European trade and home to the richest man in the world, Lord Bute, this is a gripping historical crime novel with the pace and punch of an action thriller

Martin Willis is a Professor at Cardiff University, where he lectures on subjects ranging from George Eliot to Jack the Ripper. When not teaching or writing, he spends much of his spare time surfing the waters around Wales. Cathedral of Glass is his first novel and was longlisted for the Jericho Writers First 500 Prize.