Deeds of Deceit

After five years of imprisonment and torture for a crime he did not commit, Thom Mowbray expects death rather than release. Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, instead brings the former spymaster back into service near the end of Henry V’s reign. Thom enters a court transformed by war, patronage and the approaching uncertainty of a royal succession, but his injuries have stripped away much of the authority and confidence on which his old methods depended.

Humphrey’s schemes and rival factions force Thom to trade secrets whose value is rapidly changing. His official task requires him to manipulate people close to the king; his private purpose is to save his sister from a threat the court would prefer to exploit. Reckless bargains turn intelligence work into a final struggle over family loyalty, and the series closes by asking whether a man formed by deception can use it once more without destroying what remains of the Mowbrays.