The Brothers Boswell

In 1763, James Boswell and the literary celebrity Dr. Samuel Johnson take a boat down the Thames to visit Greenwich. Unknown to this pair, they are being stalked by John Boswell, James's younger brother, who has recently been released from an asylum for the insane. John carries a pair of miniature pistols that each fire a single golden bullet, and there is murder in his heart.James is twenty-two years old, son of a stern Scottish judge, heir to the family fortune, and he has just arrived in London from Edinburgh, a provincial backwater as far as Londoners are concerned. He is eager to advance himself in Society, to appear elegant and sophisticated; John is an embarrassment, to be carefully hidden away from his new London connections. Eaten up with envy, and burdened by secrets he can never disclose to his family, John has come up to London seeking revenge for slights he believes he has suffered - inflicted not only by James, but by the author of the Dictionary himselfThe psychological motivations of rivalrous siblings are compellingly portrayed in this meticulously researched literary thriller. Eighteenth-century London comes to life as an unpredictable killer tracks his prey in the shadows of a turbulent city.