Saraband for Shadows

by Geoffrey Trease Book 2 in the Mandeville Series series.

First published 1982

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3.0(4)

Sir Renold Mandeville and his secretary Anthony race to prevent an assassination when Charles II attends Lord Ravenwood’s masque. Political violence, court entertainment and secret loyalties turn a private performance into a matter of state.

The second Mandeville novel carries the recurring characters into the Restoration. Music and ceremony mask the instability left by civil war and exile, while Trease uses the working world behind a masque to connect court culture with political surveillance.

The masque's controlled setting gives conspirators access to the king while also producing witnesses among musicians, actors and servants whom courtiers may overlook. Mandeville and Anthony must interpret both the public performance and the private movements behind it. The mystery uses Restoration entertainment to show how ceremony can project political confidence even when memories of civil war make royal security uncertain.