The Agents of the Crown-the edquo;rollicking new historical thrillerldquo; (The New York Times Book Review) series-returns with this riveting novel following the original MI6 agent as he is assigned a dangerous mission to recreate a weapon from antiquity.
As she travels through Waltham Forest, Queen Elizabeth I is ambushed by masked gunmen who leave her carriage riddled with holes before disappearing into the night. The Queenesquo;s Private Secretary, Sir Francis Walsingham, is tasked with finding the perpetrators, about whom they know precious little. But someone alerted the gunman to the route of the Queen squo;s carriage, and Walsingham knows that the assassins will not stop until sheesquo;s dead.
While Queen Elizabethesquo;s Privy Council debates how to best secure the throne in the wake of the attack and Catholic Spaincsquo;s further intrusion into the Low Countries, the queen herself searches for the ultimate weapon to protect her country and throne: Greek fire, the recipe of which disappeared with the collapse of the Byzantine Empire. She orders her friend John Dee-scientist, philosopher, and spy-to rediscover this vital secret, despite his misgivings. For he understands that in a world fraught with coded messages, ruthless adversaries, and deadly plot, his mission to secure his nationisquo;s future may prove impossible, unless he deploys the most effective weapon of all: intelligence.
With his ?dquo;twisty, fast-paced?dquo; (Publishers Weekly) prose, Oliver Clements weaves another white-knuckled and intelligent historical thriller set in the Age of the Enlightenment with parallels in the present day.
