An unnamed menace, an ancient document... five families torn apart. An unputdownable and bestselling historical mystery

John Mellamphy's life is under threat. In the remote countryside, his mother, Mary, has been burgled in mysterious circumstances. Then her protector, Mr Fortisquince, is suddenly murdered in London.

Mysterious forces are at work looking for an old document, the key to an enormous fortune. Already having experienced a life of toil and hardship, it may change John's life.

But this is a document that provokes avarice, hatred, murder and madness, that determines the fates of five families and sets the pattern of John's own life. A pattern woven around, and unravelled within, that most mysterious symbol - the Quincunx!

An extraordinary historical mystery and cult classic, The Quincunx is perfect for readers of M.J. Carter, C.J. Sansom and Oscar de Muriel.

Praise for The Quincunx

'Grips like steel... it's a book to make you miss your stop on the bus or the train, keep you up at night and wake you early... a formidable achievement' Kaleidoscope, BBC Radio 4

'His brilliant and entertaining pastiche of the mid-nineteenth-century novel' The Times

'A brilliant and deeply eccentric attempt to reproduce an early Victorian novel...it combines massive scope with minute detail - there is a cast of thousands, but every figure is lovingly painted. The plot is so thick the spoon stands up in it, and by the end, the reader has toured the whole of late Regency society... Magnificent - gripping and beautifully written; the sort of book that sends you into a trance of pleasure' Independent

'Charles Palliser has realised a world that can almost be smelt and tasted as it pours off the page of this gripping, extraordinary novel' Daily Telegraph

'His plot is of an intricacy that Wilkie Collins himself might have envied... an astonishing achievement' Scotsman

The Quincunx

1 The Huffams

2 The Mompessons

3 The Clothiers

4 The Palphramonds

5 The Maliphants