1580: Nelan Michaels docks at Plymouth after sailing around the world aboard the Golden Hind. He seeks only to master his mystical powers – the mark of the salamander, that mysterious spirit of fire – and reunite with his beloved Eleanor.
Fasten your seat belts for a roller-coaster ride through the key events of Elizabethan history. Justin Newland's brand of mystical realism means he likes to surprise the reader with his particular blend of myth and fact.
The queen's spymaster, Sir Francis Walsingham, runs his network of spies from his gloomy house in Seething Land, in the shadow of the Tower of London (fact), but in this world his preferred method of uncovering traitors and treachery is to use 'scryers', such as Nelan Michaels, who can see into the future.
The English fleet waits in Plymouth for the queen to pay their crewmen while the Spanish Armada approaches in crescent formation (fact) but Sir Francis Drake plays a game of bowls (myth). I particularly liked the well researched voyage of the Roebuck and its part in defeating hte Spanish Armada,
Some of the period details are spot on, but I suspect Justin Newland is teasing readers with some references, so think more Lewis Carroll than Hilary Mantel. Entertaining and unpredicable, readers must suspend credulity and enjoy the fantasy.
Tony Riches
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