John Shakespeare, brother of William, intrigues in old
London town, where rumours are rife of religious anti-
monarchy agitators. A priest about to be executed for
treason asks Shakespeare to find and help a girl who was,
misguidedly, the victim of exorcism rites.
THE HERETICS is set in a time and city which takes public
execution and religious persecution for granted. Why would
anyone care about Thomasyn Jade, yet another confused
female of uncertain religious persuasion? The priest is
convinced that both his soul and the girl's will be saved
if she finds help, and she was last seen in the care of the
Countess of Kent but ran away. Shakespeare reports to
Queen Elizabeth who decides that as one of her subjects,
Thomasyn Jade should be found. At the same time, a plot is
being hatched in Seville by the King of Spain.
These are stirring times, but not gentle ones, and the
tender reader may be upset by some of the scenes. I really
liked the meeting with a Dutch man who had come to live in
eastern fenland, draining the land and comparing the
scrawny English cattle with the large continental ones.
The environment here is well described with flooding
covering the causeways between towns, visible only by the
church steeples, and boats the best form of transport.
Some heavy horses pull barges, up to their withers in dank
water, while men wade on tall stilts with fowling guns or
eel traps to eke out a living. By contrast we take in a
performance at the Globe Theatre, groundlings crowding in
for a penny and the better-off sitting on tiers; cushions
extra. A turkey is served for a feast, which causes girls
to giggle that this novelty is the biggest chicken they
have ever seen. There is plenty to hold the attention in
this turbulent time.
Rory Clements has researched to bring his people and
settings to life, with a carefully woven mystery to drag
his characters the length and breadth of the country. THE
HERETICS will please readers of realistic historical
fiction, and anyone who wants to learn more about life in
this period.
An exorcism … a siege … a stealthy killer … What else could
go wrong?
John Shakespeare—intrepid private detective and brother to a
rising young playwright in Elizabethan London—is approached
by a condemned Jesuit priest with an unusual proposition:
the Father is haunted by the memory of Thomasyn Jade, a
teenage girl subjected to brutal exorcism rites a decade
past. He wants Shakespeare to track her down and offer
reparations for her treatment.
As Shakespeare begins his investigation, a plot to
assassinate the Queen is underway, and rumors of a papist
conspiracy begin swirling from Seville. And when, one by
one, Shakespeare’s trusted spies are horribly murdered, all
clues seem to be linked to the mysterious Thomasyn Jade …
Heart-pounding and packed with fascinating historical
detail, The Heretics is a thriller to rival the best of C.
J. Sansom and Alex Grecian.
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