The Assassin of Verona
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
Venice, 1586. William Shakespeare is disguised as a steward to the English Ambassador. He and his actor friends, Oldcastle and Hemming, possess a deadly secret: the names of the Catholic spies in England who seek to destroy Queen Elizabeth. Before long the Pope’s agents begin to close in on them, so fleeing the city is the players’ only option. In Verona, Aemelia, the daughter of a Duke, is struggling to conceal her passionate affair with her cousin Valentine. But darker times lie ahead with the arrival of the sinister Father Thornhill, who is determined to seek out anyone who doesn’t conform to the Pope’s ruthless agenda . . . Events will converge in the forests around Verona as a multitude of plots are hatched and discovered, players fall in and out of love, and disguises are adopted and then discarded. Will the brash William Shakespeare and his friends escape with their secrets—and their lives?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Brandreth's excellent sequel to 2018's The Spy of Venice, which featured a young William Shakespeare, opens with a prologue set in 1585 Rome, where the newly anointed Pope Sixtus V plots to depose the "heretic Queen Elizabeth" through a network of spies he's established in England. Sixtus orders four priests to track down three Englishmen in Italy believed to know the identities of the papal agents, one of whom is William, and use any means necessary to protect these agents from exposure. In the previous novel, William joined a diplomatic mission of his countrymen to Venice as a spy, posing as the English ambassador's steward. While Brandreth keeps the intrigue at a high pitch, frequently placing his lead in harm's way, he leavens the action with a moving subplot concerning William's lover, poet Isabella Lisarro, whom the future playwright fears has been poisoned at the orders of the pope. Apt quotes from Shakespeare's plays serve as chapter heads. Brandreth once again integrates vivid period detail into a well-crafted thriller plot.
