The Star Chamber

In early seventeenth-century London, where the Star-Chamber's reach turns law into a weapon, the bustling Three Cranes in the Vintry stands as a glittering center of wine, gossip, and danger. Prosper Bonaventure, a shrewd French skipper, and his dazzling wife, Dameris, have made the tavern a fashionable haunt for gallants and merchants alike, serving rare Bordeaux, French fare, and carefully managed charm. But Madame Bonaventure's beauty and self-possession are matched by caution: she preserves her reputation, guards against scandal, and even shields herself by posing as a Huguenot, knowing that in a watchful age a woman's allure can become a liability as quickly as a strength. Around her, corruption tightens its grip. Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir Francis Mitchell, notorious patent-holders, use legal intimidation, hired agents, and the machinery of the Star-Chamber to extort money from taverns and inns. Mitchell is vain and cowardly; Mompesson, cold, handsome, and ruthless, is the more formidable predator, a man who hoards wealth and ruin with equal discipline. Against this grim backdrop, May Day revels flare briefly with life, courtship, and conflict as Jocelyn, Gillian, Aveline, and Hugh Calveley collide in a world where festive freedom and Puritan severity are already on a collision course. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.