A Martin Marbeck Mystery
4 primary works
Book 1
1600: a new century dawns. War with Spain has dragged on for fifteen years, the conflict in Ireland for six. Unease stalks England in the dying years of Elizabeth I's reign, and Elizabethan intelligencer Martin Marbeck is bored. Then a message from his spymaster, Sir Robert Cecil arrives: the existence of a spy has been discovered, code-named Morera, and Marbeck must uncover the true identity of this traitor quickly, before rumours of the young King Philip III forming a new Armada prove themselves to be true.
Book 2
Spring, 1603: Queen Elizabeth is dying, and England waits anxiously. The Virgin Queen hasn’t named an heir, refusing even to speak. Her cousin James, King of Scotland, is assumed to be her successor, but will the transition be peaceful? Sir Robert Cecil, Secretary of State, fears insurrection and has brought troops to the capital. But from where might the danger come – overseas, or from malcontents closer to home?
Meanwhile Marbeck, Cecil’s best intelligencer, is under a cloud, wrongly suspected of shady dealings with the Spanish. So when the son of his friend Lady Celia Scroop joins a fanatical Puritan sect, he’s glad to leave London to try and find the wayward youth. But events move fast and Marbeck finds himself in a maelstrom: forced to confront plots from two directions, that threaten not only the peace of the nation but the very fabric of England itself . . .
Meanwhile Marbeck, Cecil’s best intelligencer, is under a cloud, wrongly suspected of shady dealings with the Spanish. So when the son of his friend Lady Celia Scroop joins a fanatical Puritan sect, he’s glad to leave London to try and find the wayward youth. But events move fast and Marbeck finds himself in a maelstrom: forced to confront plots from two directions, that threaten not only the peace of the nation but the very fabric of England itself . . .
Book 3
Book 4
Government spy Marbeck uncovers a deadly conspiracy against Parliament and the King of England
1605: With the new King James on the throne, England is still fiercely divided between Catholic and Protestant. Ordered to keep watch on well-known Papist Thomas Percy, cousin of the Earl of Northumberland, Marbeck’s assignment takes on a greater urgency when rumours reach him of a terrible danger aimed at the King. But with no idea where this threat comes from, and his spymaster’s refusal to take it seriously, Marbeck is at a loss.
And his efforts to concentrate on affairs of state are complicated by affairs of the heart in the elegant and shapely form of Charlotte de Baume. By the time he uncovers the terrifying truth, Marbeck has only days to expose the conspirators. The safety of the realm is at stake … but so is Marbeck’s own, and he must draw on every scrap of his courage, his sharp wits and his plain stubbornness to prevent a catastrophe …
1605: With the new King James on the throne, England is still fiercely divided between Catholic and Protestant. Ordered to keep watch on well-known Papist Thomas Percy, cousin of the Earl of Northumberland, Marbeck’s assignment takes on a greater urgency when rumours reach him of a terrible danger aimed at the King. But with no idea where this threat comes from, and his spymaster’s refusal to take it seriously, Marbeck is at a loss.
And his efforts to concentrate on affairs of state are complicated by affairs of the heart in the elegant and shapely form of Charlotte de Baume. By the time he uncovers the terrifying truth, Marbeck has only days to expose the conspirators. The safety of the realm is at stake … but so is Marbeck’s own, and he must draw on every scrap of his courage, his sharp wits and his plain stubbornness to prevent a catastrophe …