HOLY SPY

For fans of C. J. Sansom and S. J. Parris, HOLY SPY features the Queen's Intelligencer John Shakespeare in the latest of Rory Clements' acclaimed and bestselling series of Tudor spy thrillers.

In London's smoky taverns, a conspiracy is brewing. The year is 1586, and a group of wealthy young Catholic dissidents plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, free Mary Queen of Scots - and open England to a Spanish invasion. But confident, brash and careless, the conspirators have been infiltrated by John Shakespeare, Sir Francis Walsingham's top intelligencer. Shakespeare, however, is torn: the woman he loves stands accused of murder. Somehow he must save her from the noose even as he spins a web in which to trap the traitors. With time running out, it begins to dawn on him that the investigations are inextricably linked - by corruption close to the seat of power.

In this new spy thriller, the author takes us into the very heart of one of the most dangerous conspiracies that ever faced the realm. HOLY SPY is the seventh book in the best-selling series of Elizabethan thrillers, following Martyr, Revenger (winner of the Ellis Peters Historical Award) Prince, Traitor, The Heretics and The Queen's man.

RORY CLEMENTS is a former national newspaper journalist who now writes full-time in rural Norfolk, England.