Henry Gresham And The Gunpowder Plot.
Gunpowder, Treason and Plot . . . In the dark days of the reign of King James I, the brutal murder of a drunken thief is an unremarkable event. But for gentleman spy Henry Gresham, the death of his best informer, Will Shadwell, reeks of foul play.
It is a bad odour that follows him to London where he has been summoned by Robert Cecil, the King's Machiavellian Chief Secretary. Cecil wants him to investigate the private life of Sir Francis Bacon, but Gresham suspects a trap.
As he continues to do Cecil's' bidding with ever increasing trepidation, however, his enquiries into Shadwell's death uncover a plot so audacious it is scarcely believable: a Catholic uprising, a violent insurrection, and a trail of gunpowder leading directly underneath the houses of Parliament . . .