Description

In his critically-acclaimed debut thriller, Martyr, Rory Clements introduced visitors to the memorable John Shakespeare, main intelligencer to Queen Elizabeth I and older sibling to Will. Five decades later, the King wants Shakespeare’s providers once again, today. Not just is Britain still at war with Spain, but her courtroom is riven by savage infighting among formidable young courtiers. Shakespeare is summoned by Elizabeth’s cold but life-threatening Happy Councillor Sir Robert Cecil and requested to attempt two connected tasks: to research the secret of the condemned Roanoke community in Northern America—Sir Walt Ralegh’s folly—and to criminal on Cecil’s competitor, the dashing Earl of Essex.