Elizabethan Noir

An English Catholic fanatic is on his way to England with Spanish gold and a plan to murder Queen Elizabeth I.Simon Ames knows that if England is conquered by Spain, he and all his family will be taken by the Inquisition, tortured until they confess and then burned at the stake – for being Jews. That's why he works for the Puritan Sir Francis Walsingham, the Elizabethan M.When Ames is beaten up in an alleyway off Fleet Street, David Becket, an ex-soldier with an ugly past, kills the attacker and rescues him. But is Becket in league with the assassin himself?Tom O'Bedlam dances around London with his angels and devils and the Queen Moon. He's a lunatic, too mad to explain his dreadful secret – that he knows who the assassin is and when he will strike.Through the mean streets of a dirty and dangerous 16th century London, across thatched rooftops and under London Bridge with its freight of houses and shops, Becket, Ames and Tom fight to find the assassin and kill him before he kills the Queen.Which of them will die?

The 16th century is a hard and magnificent era to be born into, full of violence, squalor, forbidden love and rare glimmers of kindness. David Becket is a large ugly sword-master with a dark past; Simon Ames is a scrawny code breaker for Walsingham, the Elizabethan M – and a Jew. They meet when Ames is attacked in an alley in Whitefriars, London, and Becket bails him out. Later Ames will return the favour.'Firedrake's Eye' – 1583 – The mismatched pair are trying to protect Queen Elizabeth from a fanatical English Catholic who's determined to kill her. What does the lunatic Tom O'Bedlam have to do with it all?'Unicorn's Blood' – 1586 – When a devastating scandal threatens Queen Elizabeth and the country, she blackmails Ames into investigating. He agrees to come out of retirement to get Becket out of the Tower – and to save all the Jews in London from being expelled by the ruthless Queen.'Gloriana's Torch' – 1588 – Philip of Spain's Armada, the largest fleet the world had ever seen, is on its way to England. Ames is chained to an oarbench on one of its ships while Becket is haunted by bloody dreams of England devastated by the Spanish army.With the fate of two empires hanging in the balance, all will be swept up in the storm.