Past Master

Elizabeth I’s long reign is approaching its end, and Patrick, Master of Gray, is determined that James VI of Scotland will inherit the English crown. The succession offers the greatest prize of Patrick’s career, and he is prepared to manipulate allies, enemies and family alike to remove every obstacle.

His daughter Mary and her lover, Ludovick, Duke of Lennox, are caught inside this final campaign. Their happiness is expendable when measured against Patrick’s plans, while religious hostility and competing court interests turn intimacy into political evidence. Mary must decide how far she can oppose the father whose brilliance she shares, and Ludovick must survive a struggle in which loyalty is continually reinterpreted. The concluding Master of Gray novel brings personal ambition and dynastic policy together at the moment when the crowns of Scotland and England may be united, showing the cost imposed on those closest to a man who has spent his life mastering intrigue.