A Snare of Deceit: Elizabethan espionage and intrigue (Tom Walsingham Mysteries)

Another twisting espionage thriller at the Tudor court! For fans of Rory Clements, S J Parris, S W Perry and Andrew Taylor.

A new year dawns but old wounds fester…

London, 1587

A new year is being celebrated at Greenwich Palace, but not everyone is in the mood for rejoicing.

Mary Stuart, the imprisoned Queen of Scots has been officially declared a traitor. But Queen Elizabeth is reluctant to sign the death warrant and her mood has been downcast, even in the middle of the festivities.

And the night is soured further when one of the performers is found dead in the tiltyard.

The show must go on, but Tom Walsingham, spying for his cousin Sir Francis, stays behind to investigate. The dead man was no ordinary player, but a man called Jack Perkin, who Tom knew was meant to be passing information to the queen’s confidants about a plot against her life.

With Perkin’s death unlikely to be an accident, Tom feels the danger of the murderous plot escalating out of control. And the player was killed before he could pass on his warning.

But that would place the murderer at court. And dangerously close to the queen…