The Quality of Mercy

Rebecca Lopez enjoys a life of privilege in Elizabeth's England—yet she guards secrets she dares not reveal. The beautiful, tempestuous daughter of the queen's own physician, Rebecca is also a converso—a Jew who practices her prohibited religion clandestinely—helping others of her banned faith escape persecution and death. Her insatiable hunger for excitement often takes her to the bustling streets of London in male garb to experience the kind of adventure available only to men. But one such outing is leading her into a dangerous viper's nest built of intrigue and foul murder, in the company of a dashing young actor who inflames her romantic passions even as he escorts her toward peril...a charming and fearless would-be playwright who calls himself Will Shakespeare.

Rebecca Lopez, the daughter of Queen Elizabeth's physician, guards secrets she dares not reveal. She is a Jew who practices her prohibited religion clandestinely and helps others of her banned faith escape persecution and death. But Rebecca's love of excitement sparks a romantic passion with would-be playwright Will Shakespeare, and plunges them both into a viper's nest of intrigue and murder.

Faye Kellerman is the author of twenty-seven novels, including twenty New York Times bestselling mysteries that feature the husband-and-wife team of Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus. She has also penned two bestselling short novels with her husband, New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman, and recently teamed up with her daughter Aliza to cowrite a young adult novel, Prism—the story of four teens in an alternate universe. She lives with her husband in Los Angeles, California, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.