All the Queen's Spies
A Novel
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Queen Elizabeth I’s advisor John Dee is in a race to save the Empire with the help of a mysterious manuscript offering global power in this continuation of the “lively” (The New York Times) Agents of the Crown series.
Settled down in his beloved Mortlake once again, philosopher and astronomer John Dee is enjoying the quiet life when Her Majesty’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham darkens his door, instructing him to befriend a certain Polish count with an interest in alchemy and angelic communication. But when Dee and the count are caught breaking the law, trying to convene with angels, they are exiled, and must make their way to the court of Rudolf, Holy Roman Emperor, in far-off Prague.
Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth learns of Catherine de Medici’s infamous Flying Squadron, a group of seductive ladies-in-waiting scattered throughout Europe acting as her agents, and that one of them is already at work in Prague, bending the Holy Roman Emperor to join France and Spain in a crusade to crush Protestant England. With Dee on his way to Prague, Walsingham sees an opportunity to tip the scales. To convince the famously occult-loving emperor to join his side, Dee must distract him with the esoteric Book of Loagaeth, a volume transcribed from the angels that will, once decoded, allow control of the levers of heaven and earth, and everything in between.
Terrible dangers await Dee in Prague, as he faces challenges at every turn, including a reluctant female spy and a ruthless old enemy, and he is forced to call upon the many unexpected talents of his wife, as well as the playwright Christopher Marlowe.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in 1583, Clements's strong third Agents of the Crown thriller featuring real-life mathematician, occultist, and alchemist John Dee (after 2021's The Queen's Men) opens with an arresting sentence: "When John Dee thinks about it later, when he is crouched covered in blood in the stern of a fluyt and watching the coast of Kent disappear forever into the sea mist, he wonders again why he had ever supposed, even for a solitary instant, that this could or would have ever ended otherwise." Flashbacks reveal the mission that put Dee in this situation. Spymaster Francis Walsingham wants Dee to befriend Count Olbrecht Łaski, a confidante of Rudolf, the Holy Roman Emperor, who's an admirer of Dee's. That relationship is hoped to lead to the count serving as Walsingham's eyes and ears in the emperor's court, as England remains under threat from an ally of the Holy Roman Empire. Dee's efforts take him to Prague and place his life in peril. Clements's version of a vulnerable Dee contrasts nicely with fictional heroes of this period, and he maintains a high level of tension throughout. S.J. Parris fans will find a lot to like.
