Synopses & Reviews
In 1592, dashing courtier Sir Robert Carey took up his northern post as Warden of the West March in order to escape the complications of creditors and court life. Trouble, however, dogs his heels wherever he goes. And where he goes in autumn, after the summer's misadventures in Carlisle, is back to London upon a summons from his father.
Carey is on difficult terms with his powerful sire, Henry, Lord Hunsdon. Hunsdon, son of Anne Boleyn's elder sister, Mary -- and probably of a young King Henry VIII -- swings a lot of weight as ""cousin"" to Queen Elizabeth. But Hunsdon needs his ingenious younger son, Carey to sort out the difficulties his elder son has got himself into as an innocent party in a plot to discredit the family.
Accompanied by the shrewd Sergeant George Dodd, who's like a fish out of water as he copes with the strange Londoners, Carey tackles Catholics, treachery, and such persons known to history and students of literature as George Greene and Christopher Marlowe who are working as spies and double agents. Most arresting is a portrait of a love-sick, snivelling hanger-on named Will Shakespeare....
Review
""A Chisholm mystery is the next best thing to time travel.... For those who find the journey more compelling than the final destination, a Chisholm novel will offer an unforgettable Elizabethan pilgrimage.""
--Kirkus Reviews
Review
"From opening line to bottom line, the felicity of the language leads us through a neatly dove-tailed plot that ranges from high comedy to genuine pathos, but never loses its sense of engagement--because it's dealing with characters who are Real People."
--Diana Gabaldon from the Introduction
About the Author
Patricia Finney (who writes as P. F. Chisholm) has been writing since she was seven and getting paid for it since she was 15. Her first book, A Shadow of Gulls, was published when she was 18 years old, and won the David Higham Award for Best First Novel. She studied Modern History at Wadham College, Oxford. Since which time she has accumulated an American husband, one daughter, two sons, a dog and three cats, plus assorted rodents theoretically owned by her offspring. Her husband’s work as a barrister (an English lawyer, specialising in litigation) has given her fascinating insight into real-life crime and her children have taught her more than she wanted to know about human nature. She has had a variety of jobs which have included editing a medical journal and writing a weekly column in the London Evening Standard. She presently lives in Cornwall, and is working on the next couple of Carey stories, and some screenplays. She is planning a contemporary novel as well, whenever her fulltime work as nanny, chauffeur, handywoman, administrator, accountant and legal secretary gives her a chance to write it.