It is 1560, and Elizabeth Tudor has been on the throne for a year. Dr John Dee, at 32 already acclaimed throughout Europe, is her astrologer and consultant in the hidden arts... a controversial appointment in these days of superstition and religious strife. Now the mild, bookish Dee has been sent to Glastonbury to find the missing bones of King Arthur, whose legacy was always so important to the Tudor line. With him - hardly the safest companion - is his friend and former student, Robert Dudley, a risk-taker, a wild card... and possibly the Queen's secret lover. The famously mystical town is still mourning the gruesome execution of its Abbot, Richard Whiting. But why was the Abbot really killed? What is the secret held by the monks since the Abbey was founded by Joseph of Arimathea, uncle of Christ and guardian of the Holy Grail? The mission takes Dee to the tangled roots of English magic, into unexpected violence, necromantic darkness, the breathless stirring of first love... and the cold heart of a complex plot against Elizabeth.THE FIRST INSTALMENT IN THE JOHN DEE PAPERS
It is 1560, and Elizabeth Tudor has been on the throne for a year. Dr John Dee, at 32 already acclaimed throughout Europe, is her astrologer and consultant in the hidden arts... a controversial appointment in these days of superstition and religious strife. Now the mild, bookish Dee has been sent to Glastonbury to find the missing bones of King Arthur, whose legacy was always so important to the Tudor line. With him - hardly the safest companion - is his friend and former student, Robert Dudley, a risk-taker, a wild card... and possibly the Queen's secret lover. The famously mystical town is still mourning the gruesome execution of its Abbot, Richard Whiting. But why was the Abbot really killed? What is the secret held by the monks since the Abbey was founded by Joseph of Arimathea, uncle of Christ and guardian of the Holy Grail? The mission takes Dee to the tangled roots of English magic, into unexpected violence, necromantic darkness, the breathless stirring of first love... and the cold heart of a complex plot against Elizabeth.THE FIRST INSTALMENT IN THE JOHN DEE PAPERS
Phil Rickman lives on the Welsh border where he writes and presents the book programme Phil the Shelf on BBC Radio Wales. He is the author of ten Merrily Watkins Mysteries.
Religious strife, Glastonbury legends, the bones of King Arthur and the curse of the Tudors... can astrologer John Dee help the young Queen Elizabeth to avoid it? And can fans of C.J. Sansom afford to miss Phil Rickman's stunning new series of historical crime thrillers?
Phil Rickman lives on the Welsh border where he writes and presents the book programme Phil the Shelf on BBC Radio Wales. He is the author of ten Merrily Watkins Mysteries.
Chills, thrills and satisfies. A fabulous read.
*Huffington Post*
A historical thriller with a touch of romance and more than a hint
of necromancy... Brilliantly imagined and grippingly executed.
*The Times*
We don't praise our home-grown thriller writers enough, it's high
time we praised Phil Rickman.
*Daily Mail*
No-one writes better than Phil Rickman of the shadow-frontier
between the supernatural and the real world.
*Bernard Cornwell*
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