Mr Hogarth’s Marriage

When, in July 1745, John Nugent, 3rd Earl of Homerton, is found brutally slain in a Covent Garden bagnio, rumours abound as to how he was killed – and by whom. It is not long before commentators note how the death bears a striking resemblance to the murder of the Earl of Squander portrayed in William Hogarth’s latest series of engravings – ‘Marriage A-la-Mode’. Could the real-life murder of the Earl of Homerton be linked to the artist’s phenomenally successful images?

When several anonymous newspaper notices make the connection explicit through references to ‘Murder A-la-Mode’, William’s wife, Jane, and her close friend, Prudence, decide that – in the absence of any formal investigation – they must solve the mystery themselves. By tracing various links back through the ‘Marriage’ images, they identify an unlikely suspect, and discover a fiendish plot aimed at fermenting tensions between several of the late earl’s enemies – tensions that rise to a violent crescendo at the climax of a royal gala in Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens.

Nine years may have passed since the strange events that first brought the two women together in Mr Hogarth’s Morning, but Jane and Prudence have lost nothing of their shared commitment to uncovering the truth.