Shadow of Poison

Name: Shadow of Poison
Rating: 4.25 (259 reviews)

by Peter Tonkin Book 2 in the The Queen’s Intelligencer series.

First published 2024

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4.2(259)

September 1586. After the exposure of the Babington Plot, Robert Poley adopts the identity of a notorious poisoner and enters a network of Portuguese and Spanish agents, Irish soldiers and Jewish couriers. His task is to discover whether Philip II’s intelligence service intends to kill Elizabeth I or members of the government before invasion plans can proceed.

Poley’s mission is complicated by the ambitions of the Earl of Essex, who wants a dramatic intelligence success to repair his military reputation. Competing courts, exiled claimants and agents who sell information to several masters make poison difficult to distinguish from political rumour. The novel places Poley’s covert work inside the Anglo-Spanish struggle and the continuing crisis surrounding Mary, Queen of Scots.