1. The Ruffler’s Child
Late Elizabethan England. Thomas Finbow is falconer to Sir Robert Vicary and Lady Margaret of Petbury in Berkshire, a skilled servant whose earlier experience in royal service has made him observant and difficult to intimidate. When Lady Margaret's brother Nathaniel Pickering is murdered, Thomas accompanies her…
2. A Ruinous Wind
Thomas Finbow accompanies Sir Robert Vicary to the Barrowhill Pleasures, an elaborate gathering arranged by the Earl of Reigate. The festivities are meant to culminate in a dramatic re-enactment of the defeat of the Spanish Armada, with Queen Elizabeth expected to attend, but the celebration is…
3. The Ramage Hawk
Thomas Finbow is sent to Salisbury Plain to help the impoverished Sir Giles Buckeridge, training a half-wild ramage hawk and teaching falconry to his young ward Gervase. Sir Giles is also struggling to arrange respectable marriages for three daughters whose dowries he can barely afford. When…
4. The Mapmaker’s Secret
On the Berkshire Downs, Thomas Finbow goes to assist after a tenant farm burns and learns that Simon Haylock, whose body was found in the barn, was probably dead before the fire began. Further deaths spread fear through nearby villages, where suspicion quickly settles on outsiders…
5. The Maiden Bell
In the Berkshire village of Lambourn, the arrival of travelling bell-founders to cast a new church bell is a major communal event. Excitement changes to fear when the respected churchwarden Will Stubbs is found dead in the woods, and a second death removes the village constable…
6. The Jingler’s Luck
Thomas Finbow travels to London on a delicate private errand for Lady Margaret, who wants him to persuade Sir Robert to abandon an infatuation with a woman at court. The mission is overtaken when a mutilated young woman's body is recovered from the Thames and Thomas…
7. The Muscovy Chain
Thomas Finbow's master is ordered by the Queen's Council to host Grigori Stanic, an ambassador from Muscovy whose party shares an enthusiasm for hawking. Thomas is given responsibility for a magnificent gold chain intended as a diplomatic gift for Boris Godunov, the dominant figure at the…