Elizabethan Noir Series

An English Catholic fanatic is on his way to England with Spanish gold and a plan to murder Queen Elizabeth I. Simon Ames knows that if England is conquered by Spain, he and all his family will be taken by the Inquisition, tortured until they confess and then burned at the stake – for being Jews. That's why he works for the Puritan Sir Francis Walsingham, the Elizabethan M. When Ames is beaten up in an alleyway off Fleet Street, David Becket, an ex-soldier with an ugly past, kills the attacker and rescues him. But is Becket in league with the assassin himself? Tom O'Bedlam dances around London with his angels and devils and the Queen Moon. He's a lunatic, too mad to explain his dreadful secret – that he knows who the assassin is and when he will strike. Through the mean streets of a dirty and dangerous 16th century London, across thatched rooftops and under London Bridge with its freight of houses and shops, Becket, Ames and Tom fight to find the assassin and kill him before he kills the Queen. Which of them will die?

Queen Elizabeth of England has always been the Virgin Queen – but what if she is no such thing? What if she hasn't been a virgin since she was a teenager? And what if King Philip of Spain could show evidence of that, and worse, to the misogynistic Puritans surrounding her at Court? The Book of the Unicorn could destroy Elizabeth personally and publicly - but where is it? A man hanging weeping from the manacles in the Tower of London knows something, although he claims to have forgotten who he is. An old nightsoil woman will sell the Book for gold to the highest bidder - but she has disappeared among the boozing kens and bawdy houses of London. Winter has frozen the Thames, the Frost Fair is in full swing and dirty secrets are erupting everywhere. And while the Queen fights to keep alive her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, her own Court is turning against her. Simon Ames, now Anriques, realises he's in a deadly race to find the Book and must betray his friend to find it. If he fails, Elizabeth will be destroyed and England with her. And he and his family will burn at the stake for being Jews.

A curtain of death advances towards England as King Philip of Spain's Armada closes in – the largest fleet the world has ever known. The Spanish believe that none can stand in its path. In it sails a man who works for the Inquisition and plans to open a Holy Office in London after the conquest. He hates all Jews and is determined to destroy them all, in England as well as Spain. Amid the chaos, Merula – a slave woman – desperately searches for her son. In the cold north, she finds comfort in the arms of a man haunted by visions of England laid to waste beneath the boots of the Spanish army. Are the visions a true prophecy, or only one possible future? Simon Ames is now living his worst nightmare: a prisoner of the Inquisition, he is chained to an oarbench in the belly of the Armada itself. Yet he may hold the key to stopping the attack – and his own salvation. With the fate of two empires hanging in the balance, all will be swept up in the storm.

The 16th century is a hard and magnificent era to be born into, full of violence, squalor, forbidden love and rare glimmers of kindness. David Becket is a large ugly sword-master with a dark past; Simon Ames is a scrawny code breaker for Walsingham, the Elizabethan M – and a Jew. They meet when Ames is attacked in an alley in Whitefriars, London, and Becket bails him out. Later Ames will return the favour. 'Firedrake's Eye' – 1583 – The mismatched pair are trying to protect Queen Elizabeth from a fanatical English Catholic who's determined to kill her. What does the lunatic Tom O'Bedlam have to do with it all? 'Unicorn's Blood' – 1586 – When a devastating scandal threatens Queen Elizabeth and the country, she blackmails Ames into investigating. He agrees to come out of retirement to get Becket out of the Tower – and to save all the Jews in London from being expelled by the ruthless Queen. 'Gloriana's Torch' – 1588 – Philip of Spain's Armada, the largest fleet the world had ever seen, is on its way to England. Ames is chained to an oarbench on one of its ships while Becket is haunted by bloody dreams of England devastated by the Spanish army. With the fate of two empires hanging in the balance, all will be swept up in the storm.