An Unpardonable Crime is a twenty-first-century novel with a nineteenth-century voice. It is both a multilayered literary murder mystery and a love story, its setting ranging from the coal-scented fogs of late-Regency London to the stark winter landscapes of Gloucestershire. And at its center is the boy who does not really belong anywhere, an actor who never learns the significance of his part.

"Easily one of the best books I've read this year, a fabulous mystery." --Barbara Peters, The Poisoned Pen

"A fluid, atmospheric period thriller." --Publishers Weekly

". . . a moody, delightful Gothic thriller . . . The period details are pitch perfect." --Minneapolis Star Tribune

"A wonderful book, richly composed and beautifully written, an enthralling read from start to finish." --London Times

"Familiar conventions get a fresh coat of paint in this historical novel full of pithy observations that offer a nod to Jane Austen and colorful characters straight out of Dickens. Taylor constructs an entertaining, sometimes enchanting, world." --People magazine

"A timeless story about arrogance, obsession and justification." --Houston Chronicle

"The story is dark and compelling, and I was absorbed from the beginning. It will really appeal to fans of An Instance at the Fingerpost and The Dante Club." --Eric Buscher, Posman Books

"A sophisticated writer . . . with a high degree of literary expertise." --New York Times Book Review

"Like Hitchcock, Taylor pitches extreme and gothic events within a hair's breadth of normality." --Times Literary Supplement

"The most underrated crime writer in Britain today." --Val McDermid

"Taylor is a major thriller talent." --Time Out London

"One of Britain's best writers of psychological suspense." --The Times (of London)

"The most interesting novelist writing on crime in England today." --Harriet Waugh, The Spectator