Highly recommended – entertaining and suspenseful

Calumny Spinks is a unique, street urchin type of character that takes to the late 17th Century London streets and sets his sights on becoming a coffee racketeer, as during this time, coffee was very popular. Since times were tough and unstable, commodities were fought over like life’s blood. Piers Alexander’s novel reminded me a bit like reading some of my favorite Charles Dickens novels, mostly in terms of setting feel, period details, and original, yet loveable, characters! His writing style was even similar to 17th Century London authors, as he wrote set into the time of course, but as well there was still an ease to the writing and reading and would be understandable to all readers. I highly recommend The Bitter Trade for an entertaining, suspenseful novel that brings some sides of the Glorious Revolution to fuller light.