Magic in the Weave

by Alys Clare Book 4 in the Gabriel Taverner Mysteries series.

First published 2022

Amazon

4.2(609)

October 1604. Plague in London has closed the theatres and sent a travelling company west on a ‘plague tour’, bringing actors, secrets and danger to Plymouth. Their performances trade on stories of magic and witchcraft, but Gabriel Taverner soon finds that the deaths surrounding the company demand a more material explanation.

Gabriel’s medical scepticism is tested by a case involving theatrical rivalry, concealed identities and the reach of royal intelligence. The novel sets the culture of the early Jacobean stage against the disruption caused by epidemic disease, showing how fear of plague and fear of supernatural harm can both be manipulated by people with practical motives.