The Audacious Crimes of Colonel Blood: The Spy Who Stole the Crown Jewels and Became the King's Secret Agent

Reading this book, it's not hard to imagine a man in an elaborate cravat introducing himself as "Blood. Thomas Blood." The titular Colonel Blood's crimes were audacious verging on unbelievable. How many times can one try to assassinate a monarch and still end up his spy? Quite a few, as it turns out. Blood (1618–80) partnered with doomsday religious fanatics (the year 1666 engendered a lot of panic), a group of radical Presbyterians, and an endless stream of antigovernment conspirators. Hutchinson (The Last Days of Henry VIII; Elizabeth's Spymaster) helpfully offers a detailed list of the people in Blood's life as well as a cheat-sheet chronology. Blood was so notorious both for his nefarious deeds and his ability to escape punishment that he was accused of starting the Great Fire of London (he didn't) and of still being alive after he died (he wasn't—they checked). The plots, planned uprisings, and double crosses pile up as Blood plows through history and readers are left surprisingly sympathetic to those who disinterred Blood—zombie criminals seem plausible by the end.