The Tailor of Rotten Row
A Novel of Regency Secrets

About this book:

In the hushed luxury of his Rotten Row atelier, Valentine Best stitches more than superfine wool and silk—he stitches silence. As master tailor to dukes, earls, and the Prince Regent's inner circle, he knows the exact measure of every man's vanity, the precise cut of every secret: the frayed cuff betraying a ruined fortune, the sudden switch to domestic cloth signaling disgrace, the love letter forgotten in a waistcoat lining. He is the confessor of the ton, armed with a tape measure and an ironclad discretion. Until the Duke of Westone's secretary walks through his door with a crude blackmail note, a purse of five hundred sovereigns, and an ultimatum: find the traitor who stole a state secret from the Duke's own pocket, or be ruined by morning.

The stolen document proves a cabinet minister sold secrets to Bonaparte at Vienna. The suspects are Valentine's most distinguished clients: a diplomat drowning in gambling debts, a baronet hungry for the Duke's political crown, a shadowy whisperer who trades in secrets like coin. Each man visits the fitting room with his own agenda, each reaction a thread Valentine must follow into the fog-bound alleys and glittering ballrooms of Regency London. But the tailor's needle cuts both ways—as he unpicks the conspiracy, he discovers the blackmailer knows the architecture of his shop, the habits of his apprentice, and the vulnerability of the woman he once loved.

From the steam-scented sanctuary of the cutting table to the murderous fog of the docks, *The Tailor of Rotten Row* unfolds a tapestry of treason, greed, and the terrible price of a gentleman's honor. Valentine Best has spent twenty years measuring other men's lives; now he must measure his own courage against a conspiracy that could topple the government and plunge the nation back into war. In a world where every seam hides a lie, the sharpest blade is not the shears—but the truth.