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Book description

The brilliant new Elizabethan thriller from the highly acclaimed author of SACRED TREASON. 1564: Catholic herald William Harley, Clarenceux King of Arms, is the custodian of a highly dangerous document. When it is stolen, Clarenceux immediately suspects a group of Catholic sympathisers, the self-styled Knights of the Round Table. Francis Walsingham, the ruthless protégé of the queen's Principal Secretary, Sir William Cecil, intercepts a coded message from the Knights to a Countess known to have Catholic leanings. He is convinced that Clarenceux is trying to use the document to advance the cause of the Catholic Queen. And soon Clarenceux enters a nightmare of suspicion, deception and conspiracy. Conflict and fear, compounded by the religious doubts of the time, conceal a persistent mystery. Where has the document gone? Who has it and who really took it? And why? The roots of betrayal are deep and shocking: and Clarenceux's journey towards the truth entails not just the discovery of clues and signs, but also the discovery of himself. James Forrester is a pen name for historian Dr Ian Mortimer. Dr Mortimer is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, Honorary Research Fellow at Exeter University and the author of four medieval biographies for Jonathan Cape: The Greatest Traitor: the Life of Sir Roger Mortimer<; The Perfect King: The Life of Edward III; The Fears of Henry IV and 1415: Henry V's Year of Glory. He is also the author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England. Ian Mortimer was awarded the Alexander Prize by the Royal Historical Society for his work on the social history of medicine. He lives with his wife and three children on the edge of Dartmoor.