MURDER AT THE MASKED BALL The Assassination of Gustaf III of Sweden

Hardback. Tr. from the Swedish by Paul Britten Austin. A feat of meticulous historical reconstruction by the author, featuring the aristocratic conspiracy against King Gustaf of Sweden which culminated in his assassination in March 1792. A monarch with almost despotic powers, Gustaf III had waged extravagant war against Russia and then made an alliance with Catherine II. Rumours spread that a marriage was proposed between his sickly 13yr old heir and a Russian archduchess. Meanwhile, with the French Revolution in full swing in Paris, Gustaf was proposing to send an expedition of 16,000 men to restore Louis XIV to full monarchical power. In this atmosphere of political uncertainty and mounting discontent, and against the backcloth of snow-covered Stockholm, the author unfolds the sequence of events which led to the King's decision, despite an anonymous warning, to attend the masked ball where he was shot down and fatally wounded. At first there seems to be no clue as to who it was, of the many similarly clothed and masked dancers, fired the fatal shot. But, in a feat of brilliant and startling detective work, the chief of police uncovered his identity in a mere 8 hours - and the subsequent arrests and interrogations led up inexorably to the gruesome execution and mutilation of the assassin. Illus. + Map and Index. 242pp. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. V. lightly browned edges, o/w Nr. F. in sl. sunned vg+ dw.