Excellent story! Totally engrossing!. Looking forward to reading more by this author! Could not put this down!

Detective Inspector Nigella Parker has partnered with Colm O’Leary of Scotland Yard to apprehend a serial arsonist whose fires have included human casualties. Two centuries earlier, a lady-in-waiting to the Queen of England and the King’s fireworks mastermind combine talents to track down who killed a friend during the siege of the Great Fire of London in 1866. And By Fire tells these two stories going back and forth between history and present day for a very interesting read. I thoroughly enjoyed this book along with gaining more knowledge of such an historic event. I received an ARC of this book and the opinions expressed are my own.

When dual time novels work well, they can be very good indeed. Because I am picky about historical detail, I am frequently not so much disappointed as annoyed. Even the best author may trip when writing about an earlier period through failure to do enough research or to understand just how much he or she does not know. Evie Hawtrey’s dual time police procedural/mystery AND BY FIRE came as a pleasant surprise.

The modern day sections involve the hunt for a serial arsonist in London by a pair of detectives, male and female, who have a prior romantic history. That by itself makes a good story. The parts set in 1666 at the time of London’s Great Fire follow the efforts of a fireworks maker and a lady-in-waiting to solve the murder of a friend committed during that conflagration. The background is well researched and the characters are believable for that period. They are not 21st century people in costume.

The two sets of characters’ methods and situations differ but some of their dilemmas are the same. Together the stories dovetail and reinforce each other. This was a thoroughly enjoyable read.

I received an ARC in return for my unbiased review of AND BY FIRE.

This story is told with dual timelines which I usually like.
However with this book, the story in the past was kinda boring. The present day story was kinda draggy until the last few chapters. I’m sure there’s several readers who will enjoy this book, unfortunately for me it was just ok.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the early copy

Present day London is two cities; Metropolitan London, served by the Metropolitan Police Force, and The City of London, that square mile, walled city established by the Romans, served by the City of London Police Force. A burnt figure has been found at the foot of the Monument to the Great Fire of London. City of London Police Detective Inspector Nigella Parker arrives to discover that it is not an actual body, but a wooden sculpture that has been burned. Her instincts tell her that this is not the last instance and that the perpetrator might escalate to killing actual persons. She partners with Scotland Yard Inspector Colm O’Leary, with whom she has a past, to investigate and attempt to identify and stop the perpetrator, using both the modern tools of investigation, including the nearly omnipresent closed circuit television cameras and automobile registries, as well as more old school techniques of interview and surveillance. Their search takes them across London and into the countryside in search of this arsonist with an agenda.
The Great Fire of London also plays a part in an intertwining case of two detectives investigating an opportunistic murder that occurs at St. Paul’s Cathedral, during the fire that took place 350 years earlier. A lady in waiting to the Queen of Charles II and a French fireworks maker seem an unlikely pair of detectives, but their interest in science leads them to investigate the matter. The evocation of that era brings to life that terrifying time, when a significant portion of the City ceased to exist, and xenophobia led people to do terrible things to those they perceived as other. Echoes of their investigation are discovered in the present day police case.
As the present day case escalates, the investigators find themselves also looking at people close to them. Just who is this fire-artist and what does he want?

Nigella Parker is a DI with the London city police, and she’s seen more than her fair share of strange and inexplicable things. Now, she’s been called to the scene of a horrific murder; a body has been charred beyond recognition and left at the base of of Christopher Wren’s monument to the Great Fire of London. The case is especially hard on Nigella, who has had a crippling phobia of fire all her life. The arsonist is just beginning his reign of terror, and Nigella teams up with Scotland Yard detective, Colm O’Leary. The two detectives, former lovers, follow a trail of fire and death across London, aware that all the crime scenes are related to Sir Christopher Wren. As Nigella follows a killer through the 21st century, in the 17th century a lady in waiting to the queen and a fireworks maker hunt down the person they believe was behind the destruction of St. Paul’s Cathedral. I really enjoyed this clever mystery spanning hundreds of years, and two women connected by fire and the desire for justice