Author Antonia Hodgson joins host Robin Milling at Kings Cross bar down in the Bowery in New York City to talk about her new murder mystery, The Devil In the Marshalsea. It's a fitting place to meet as her novel is set in 18th century gritty London where oweing a debt can land you in the city's most notorious prison -- the Marshalsea Gaol, and the Bowery was once home to vagrants and street criminals. Facts meet fiction in this page turner featuring the charming rogue Thomas Hawkins whose gambling habits get the best of him and he is thrown into the gaol where a murderer is still at large.

Antonia tells Robin she spent many hours in the British public library researching prisoner's diaries, becoming fascinated with the debtors prisons where rich and poor alike ironically had to scrounge up money to pay for food and shelter in these seedy surroundings. She decided to set her crime novel in this world where whores, society gentlemen and scoundrels live under the roof of the ruthless governor William Acton who actually ran the Marshalsea almost 300 years ago.

The Devil In The Marshalsea has visuals that are ripe for the screen. Antonia says the book has already been optioned for television to develop a series where her wish casting would include Tom Hiddleston in the role of Hawkins. In her other life Antonia is an editor and works with many actors so she is thinking about writing a part for Rupert Everett in her next book which is a sequel!

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