The Queen's Men
A Novel
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- £11.99
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- £11.99
Publisher Description
The unputdownable and “lively” (The New York Times) Agents of the Crown series continues with this riveting novel following the original MI6 agent as he is assigned a dangerous mission to recreate a weapon from antiquity.
As she travels through Waltham Forest, Queen Elizabeth I is ambushed by masked gunmen who leave her carriage riddled with holes before disappearing into the night. Knowing that the perpetrators have the Queen’s carriage route, her Private Secretary, Sir Francis Walsingham, must find the mystery assailants before they can strike again.
While Queen Elizabeth’s Privy Council debates how to best secure the throne in the wake of the attack and Catholic Spain’s further intrusion into the Low Countries, the queen herself searches for the ultimate weapon to protect her country and throne: Greek fire, the recipe of which disappeared with the collapse of the Byzantine Empire.
She orders her friend John Dee—scientist, philosopher, and spy—to rediscover this vital secret, despite his misgivings. For he understands that in a world fraught with coded messages, ruthless adversaries, and deadly plot, his mission to secure his nation’s future may prove impossible, unless he deploys the most effective weapon of all: intelligence.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1577, Clements's exciting sequel to 2020's The Eyes of the Queen vividly recreates the cloak-and-dagger intrigues of the Elizabethan era. The seriously ill Elizabeth, against the counsel of her advisers who are worried about assassins, insists on returning to her London palace from Hertfordshire. En route, her caravan is accosted by armed men who fire multiple shots into the monarch's carriage before fleeing, mortally wounding one of the occupants. Initially believed to be the queen, the victim proves to be the teenage daughter of a knight who was riding in the royal carriage while the sick queen was being transported in a separate vehicle. The attempt at regicide, along a route whose details were closely guarded, leads Elizabeth to charge Francis Walsingham, "Her Majesty's Principal Private Secretary," with tracking down the killers and identifying the men behind them. At the same time, she orders alchemist John Dee to recreate a legendary weapon, Greek fire, to use against the Spanish. Clements smoothly blends a fast-paced plot with evocative period detail. S.J. Parris fans will be pleased.
