For fans of CJ Sansom and SJ Parris MARTYR is the first of Rory Clements acclaimed and bestselling John Shakespeare series of Tudor spy thrillers. Clements winner of the Ellis Peters Historical Fiction Award does for Elizabeths reign what CJ Sansom does for Henry VIIIs Sunday Times England is close to war. Within days the axe could fall on the neck of Mary Queen of Scots and Spain is already gathering a battle fleet to avenge her. Tensions in Elizabeth Is government are at breaking point. At the eye of the storm is John Shakespeare chief intelligencer in the secret service of Sir Francis Walsingham. When an intercept reveals a plot to assassinate Englands sea dragon Francis Drake Shakespeare is ordered to protect him. With Drake on land fitting out his ships he is frighteningly vulnerable. If he dies England will be open to invasion. In a London rife with rumour Shakespeare must decide which leads to follow which to ignore. When a high-born young woman is found mutilated and murdered at an illicit printing house it is political gunpowder - and he has no option but to investigate. But why is Shakespeare shadowed at every turn by the brutal Richard Topcliffe the blood-drenched priest-hunter who claims intimacy with Queen Elizabeth herself? What is Topcliffes interest in a housemaid whose baby has been stolen? And where do two fugitive Jesuit priests fit into the puzzle one happy to die for God the other to kill for Him? From the splendour and intrigue of the royal court to the sleek warships of Her Majestys Navy and the teeming brothels of Southwark Shakespeare soon learns that nothing is as it seems . . .
