October Reads Worth Falling For

Danger, desire, second chances, and unexpected romance—discover this month’s Fresh Fiction Featured Books.

Purchase

Holy Spy, February 2016
e-Book
Revenger, October 2014
e-Book (reprint)
Martyr, September 2014
e-Book
The Queen's Man, March 2014
Paperback / e-Book
The Heretics, February 2014
e-Book
The Man in the Snow, December 2013
e-Book
Traitor, November 2013
e-Book
Prince, October 2013
e-Book
Revenger, July 2011
Hardcover / e-Book
Martyr, May 2009
Hardcover / e-Book

MARTYR
By: Rory Clements

Readers Selection

April 3, 2010

In this ingenious debut, Rory Clements introduces John Shakespeare, Elizabethan England?s most remarkable investigator, and delivers a tale of murder and conspiracy that succeeds brilliantly as both historical fiction and a crime thriller.

John Shakespeare #1
Bantam
May 2009
On Sale: May 19, 2009
Featuring: John Shakespeare; Elizabeth I
400 pages
ISBN: 0385342829
EAN: 9780385342827
Kindle: B00296SVHW
Hardcover / e-Book
Add to Wish List

Historical | Thriller

Conspiracy and murder in Elizabethan England.

In a burnt-out house, one of Queen Elizabeth’s aristocratic cousins is found murdered, her flesh marked with profane symbols. At the same time a plot is discovered to assassinate England’s feared sea warrior Sir Francis Drake – a plot which, if successful, could leave the country open to Spanish invasion.

The year is 1587. One man is charged with the desperate task of solving both cases: John Shakespeare, chief intelligencer in Sir Francis Walsingam’s spy network. With the Spanish Armada poised to strike, Mary Queen of Scots awaiting execution and the pikes above London Bridge decorated with the severed heads of traitors, the country is in peril of being overwhelmed by fear, chaos and religious strife.

Following a trail of illicit passions and family secrets, Shakespeare travels through a teeming underworld of enemy agents, sorcerers, whores and poets, among whom is his own younger brother, the struggling playmaker Will.

Gradually unravelling a complex conspiracy of international intrigue – and shadowed at every turn by his deadly rival, the Queen’s brutal torturer Richard Topcliffe – John Shakespeare soon realises his own family and the beautiful woman he desires are in grave danger of becoming the next martyrs to a passion for murder.