Martyr by Rory Clements - ISBN: 9781848540781
Paperback
England on the brink: betrayal, assassination, and secrets ignite deadly plots.

Martyr

A spellbinding, utterly gripping historical mystery from the award-winning, SUNDAY TIMES bestseller

$26.76

  • Paperback

    432 pages

  • Release Date

    1 March 2010

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Summary

England is close to war. Within days the axe could fall on the neck of Mary Queen of Scots, and Spain is already gathering a battle fleet to avenge her. Tensions in Elizabeth I’s government are at breaking point. At the eye of the storm is John Shakespeare, chief intelligencer in the secret service of Sir Francis Walsingham. When an intercept reveals a plot to assassinate England’s “sea dragon”, Francis Drake, Shakespeare is ordered to protect him. With Drake on land fitting out his ships, he…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781848540781
ISBN-10:1848540787
Author:Rory Clements
Publisher:Hodder & Stoughton
Imprint:Hodder Paperback
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:432
Release Date:1 March 2010
Weight:293g
Dimensions:200mm x 142mm x 28mm
Series:John Shakespeare
What They're Saying

Critics Review

Clements can be seen as doing for Elizabeth’s reign what CJ Sansom does for Henry VIII’s.

A colourful history lesson…leavened by exciting narrative twists - The Sunday Telegraph

The joy of this book is the way it interweaves commonly known history with the story. The atmosphere and attention to detail will commend this book to devotees of the period - Crimesquad

An engrossing thriller - Washington Post

Beautifully done … alive and tremendously engrossing - Daily Telegraph

Enjoyable, bloody and brutish - Guardian

An excellent debut - Publishers Weekly

Captivates and carries one along through the strength of its plot and its intelligent main character - Dallas Morning News

Sharp and challenging, this book is missed at one’s peril - Oxford Times

About The Author

Rory Clements

Author Rory Clements has had a long and successful newspaper career including being Features Editor and Associate Editor of Today, Editor of the Daily Mail’s Good Health Pages and, most recently, Editor of the health section at the Evening Standard. He is now writing full-time in an idyllic corner of Norfolk.

‘I have a healthy obsession with the 16th century,’ says Clements. ‘I love the world as it then was, the characters, the conspiracies and the extraordinary resolve of people who were willing to cast themselves adrift into uncharted oceans with no way of knowing whether they would ever return. I wanted to explore, too, the contrast between the barbarity of men like the licensed sadist Richard Topcliffe and the humanity of William Shakespeare, the glitter and glamour of Elizabeth’s court and the squalor of the streets. So different and yet so similar to the world we now inhabit with its religious tensions and great movements of people.’

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