Shadow of Treason

by Peter Tonkin Book 5 in the The Queen’s Intelligencer series.

First published 2023

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London, April 1603. An explosion at a gunpowder mill brings Robert Poley face to face with the fugitive Catholic Robert Catesby. After arrest and release, Catesby begins gathering men prepared to answer the new Stuart government with spectacular violence. Poley identifies the need for an explosives expert and focuses his agents on the soldier Guy Fawkes.

The investigation becomes a contest between a spymaster who knows that plots can be encouraged as well as detected and conspirators who believe ordinary petition has failed. Robert Cecil expects usable evidence, not merely suspicion, while James I’s policy towards Catholics continues to shift. The novel follows Poley’s surveillance towards the conspiracy later known as the Gunpowder Plot.