Francis Bacon Mystery

Brilliant Francis Bacon is at a loss -- and in danger. Bacon must put down his books and investigate the murder of a fellow barrister at Gray's Inn in order to regain the queen's favor. He recruits his unwanted protégé, Thomas Clarady, to do the tiresome legwork. The son of a wealthy privateer, Tom will gladly do anything to climb the Elizabethan social ladder. The first clues point to a Catholic conspirator, but other motives for murder quickly emerge. Rival barristers contend for the victim's legal honors and wealthy clients. Highly-placed courtiers are implicated as the investigation reaches from Whitehall to the London streets. Bacon does the thinking; Clarady does the fencing. Everyone has something up his pinked and padded sleeve. Even Bacon is at a loss -- and in danger -- until he sees through the disguises of the season of Misrule.

Thomas Clarady risks his life, his eternal soul - and his chastity! Tom is recruited to spy on a group of radical Puritans at Cambridge University with Francis Bacon as his spymaster - his tutor in tradecraft and politics. Their commission gets off to a deadly start when Tom finds his chief informant hanging from the roof beams. Now he has to catch a murderer as well as a seditioner. His first suspect is the volatile poet Christopher Marlowe, who keeps turning up in the middle of Tom's investigations. Dogged by unreliable assistants, chased by lusty women, and harangued daily by the exacting Bacon, Tom risks his heart and soul to stop the villains and win his reward.

London, 1588: Someone is turning Catholics into widows, taking advantage of armada fever to mask the crimes. The Andromache Society, a widows' guild led by his formidable aunt, charges Francis Bacon with identifying the murderer. He must free his friends from the Tower, track an exotic poison, and untangle multiple crimes to determine if the motive is patriotism, greed, lunacy - or all three.

It's 1589 and England is embroiled in a furious pamphlet war between an impudent Puritan calling himself Martin Marprelate and London's wittiest writers. The archbishop wants Martin to hang. The Privy Council wants the tumult to end. But nobody knows who Martin is or where he's hiding his illegal press. Then two writers are strangled, mistaken for Thomas Nashe, the pamphleteer who is hot on Martin's trail. Francis Bacon is tasked with stopping the murders - and catching Martin, while he's about it. But the more he learns, the more he fears Martin may be someone dangerously close to home. Can Bacon and his band of intelligencers stop the strangler before another writer dies, without stepping on Martin's possibly very important toes?

Secret trysts, daring dalliances, and a pair of pedigreed hounds... ... keep Francis Bacon and his team busy while trying to catch a reckless murderer. It's Midsummer, 1591, at Richmond Palace, and love is in the air. Gallant courtiers sport with great ladies while Tom and Trumpet bring their long-laid plans to fruition at last. Everybody's doing it - even Francis Bacon enjoys a private liaison with the secretary to the new French ambassador. But the Queen loathes scandal and will punish anyone rash enough to get caught. Still, it's all in a summer day until a man is found dead in the orchard. The youth had few talents beyond a keen nose for gossip. He was doubtless murdered to protect a secret, but what sort? Romantic, or political? They carried different penalties - banishment from court or a traitor's death. Either way, worth killing to protect. Bacon wants nothing more than to leave things alone. He has no position and no patron; in fact, he's being discouraged from investigating. But could he live with himself if another innocent person dies?

Anthony Bacon returns after thirteen years in France to live in his brother's house at Gray's Inn. Though seldom strong enough to leave his rooms, his gouty legs never hinder his agile mind. He's built the most valuable intelligence service in Europe. Now the Bacon brothers are ready to offer it to the patron with the deepest pockets. Then Francis finds a body lying near Anthony's coach. The clues inside point to Anthony's secretary. Worse, the murdered man had been spreading rumors that could destroy Anthony's reputation. Francis thinks his brother did it. Assistant Thomas Clarady thinks the secretary did it. As they investigate, they hear one story after another about what happened. Which is the truth? Can they sort through the lies before disaster strikes?

Spring, 1593. A ballad is posted in the heart of London inciting violence. The Lord Mayor offers 100 crowns for the name of the author. Thomas Clarady wants that money and drags Francis Bacon into the game. At first it's just a riddle to be solved. Tom talks to poets, while Francis analyzes the verse. Things take a dangerous turn when the authorities focus on two popular playmakers. One is cruelly tortured. Another is killed in dubious circumstances. Did he start a brawl that ended in tragedy? Or was he murdered by his dinner companions? The official story seems plausible, at first. But Tom doesn't buy it. Distraught at the death of his friend, he refuses stop digging, uncovering a plot he should have left buried. Francis Bacon and his team hazard their lives and reputations to determine the truth. Whether justice can ever be obtained is another matter.