England, August 1591. After two years as a soldier turned spy for the Crown, Captain Will Revill embarks on what he hopes will be his final mission.
On orders of Queen Elizabeth’s new spymaster, Sir Robert Cecil, he must join the staff of Lord Ballater, an embittered Catholic, who like most of the nobility is following the Queen’s annual Summer Progress.
Revill’s task is to keep a close watch on Ballater’s staunchly Catholic servants – one of whom Cecil believes intends to make an attempt on the Queen’s life. As the great train of several hundred people traverses the Southern Counties, Elizabeth is often exposed to grave danger.
Things begin badly for Revill. Unwelcome and mistrusted among Ballater’s company, his unofficial presence denied by Cecil, he locks horns with His Lordship’s belligerent steward Saul Harman. Yet Harman seems an unlikely assassin – as does the taciturn ex-soldier Hawkins, or Ballater’s bookish secretary Dickon.
Perhaps Cecil is mistaken. But the mystery takes another turn when, aided by Cecil’s undercover agent John Shearer, Revill uncovers a scheme run by the Crown Purveyors to divert funds from the royal coffers.
When the Queen’s train reaches Chichester, a plot is at last laid bare - and an old enemy comes out of the shadows.
Only a man of Revill’s courage and quick thinking can avert disaster…
if his luck holds.
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About the Author
An author for over thirty years, John Pilkington has written plays for radio and theatre as well as television scripts for a BBC soap, but now concentrates mainly on historical fiction set in the Tudor and Stuart eras. He has published over twenty books including the Thomas the Falconer Mysteries, the Marbeck spy series and the Justice Belstrang Mysteries (all pub. By Sharpe Books). He is also the author of a children’s series, the Elizabethan Mysteries (Usborne) and two Restoration tales featuring actress-turned-sleuth Betsy Brand (Joffe Books). Born in the north-west of England, he now lives in a Devon village with his partner, and has a son who is a psychologist and musician. Find out more by visiting his website at www.johnpilkington.co.uk or find him on Twitter @_JohnPilkington
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