It is 1750 and Daniel, the 10 year old foundling living with Dick Bates is worried. Dick is the owner of the Peacock Alehouse in White Cross Street, Islington. It’s a thriving alehouse and Daniel is very happy there, looking after the horses and sleeping in the stables. There has already been a minor fire, which Daniel escaped from and took the horses to safety. Someone is trying to get rid of the Peacock, but who?

 On the opposite side of Chiswell Street from the Peacock, Sam Whitbread’s huge new brewery has been built and Sam is making a fortune from his porter. Despite his success and the size of his operation, he won’t tolerate any competition – and that’s how he sees the Peacock.  He has already got Tom Shewell, his partner, to try to shift Dick Bates – an easy thing to do, as Tom has been barred from the Peacock. Tom got his wayward niece Kate to start the fire in the stables, but that didn’t work, so now he wants something much, much worse to happen, so that Dick Bates and the Peacock will vanish from the face of the earth. Kate won’t do it, so he turns to his son, Barney, who idolizes his father and will do anything he suggests.

Kate, having walked away from her drunken mother and her awful home on the other side of Old Street, is taken in by her Uncle Tom and Aunt Joan and learns what it’s like to have a loving, caring woman looking after her. She also gets a hopeless crush on Sam Whitbread, a tall, handsome young man in his early twenties, much to Barney’s disgust.

Dick suspects that Tom and Sam Whitbread are up to no good, and asks Daniel to act as a spy for him and let him know if he finds out anything suspicious. Daniel is delighted to be able to help his master, who ha been very kind to him since he picked him up off the streets a year ago. Daniel still can’t really remember what happened before then (but it comes back to him by the end of the story).

We learn just what Sam and Tom’s plans are and how Dick tries to avoid losing his beloved Peacock, which is his home as well as his livelihood. His wife, who aspires to greater things than being the wife of a brewer, has other ideas and is not sorry when things don’t go all Dick’s way.

What happens to the Peacock and its inhabitants? Does Kate get over her passion for Sam Whitbread? Do Sam and Tom stay as partners? And, of course, what is Daniel’s story?About the Author

Boson Books also offers Belaset's Daughter by Feona Hamilton. Both books are available in trade paperback.