Sir Robert Carey

It's September 1592, and the dark streets of London are full of people up to no good. The redoubtable Sergeant Dodd and that dashing Elizabethan gunslinger Sir Robert Carey are in London where Carey's powerful father, Lord Henry Hunsdon, wants him to solve the mystery of a corpse that has washed up from the Thames River onto Her Majesty's privy steps. Meanwhile, Sergeant Dodd is plotting how to take suitable revenge for his mistreatment by the Queen's Vice Chamberlain, Thomas Heneage. But no lawyer will sue against such a dangerous courtier—until a mysterious stranger offers help with suspicious eagerness. Now, Sergeant Dodd has to help Carey find the identity of the corpse and its murderer, while bringing a little taste of the Borders to his dealings with Heneage. A Poisoned Press Mystery

Thursday, 12th October, 1592. Eighteen days after the action closes in An Air of Treason, courtier Sir Robert Carey and Carey's surly, larcenous, and loyal henchman Henry Dodd, land sergeant of Gilsland, are back in Carlisle and the Debateable Lands-the Border country, the wild North, the land of the hot trod where the thieving, feuding river clans are 'English when it suited, and Scots at their pleasure.' A Chorus of Innocents ushers forward Lady Elizabeth Widdrington, a married woman whom Carey adores but respects. It opens when a very pregnant young woman rides to Lady Widdrington's tower crying that her minister husband has been murdered and she herself has been raped. Listeners will meet canny King James VI; his amoral favorite Lord Spynie; the fey Lady Hume; Mr. Anricks, a surprisingly skilled tooth drawer; Young Henry Widdrington with his unfortunate spots; and all the boys in murdered Minister Burn's choir. The action proceeds full tilt and finishes with a bang.