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Shadow of the Axe
by Peter Tonkin
Book 3 in the The Queen’s Intelligencer series.
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England, 1599. After Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, bursts into Elizabeth I’s private chamber at Nonsuch, Robert Cecil begins planning the favourite’s final political destruction. He turns to Robert Poley, the intelligencer associated with the Babington investigation, and orders him undercover inside Essex House. Poley must penetrate a network that already knows his reputation for betrayal.
Essex’s followers, including the Bacon brothers’ intelligence circle, believe rebellion may be the only defence against disgrace and prosecution. Poley’s Catholic conscience is increasingly troubled by the methods required to manufacture evidence and provoke action. The novel follows the conspiracy towards the 1601 uprising and the execution waiting beneath the shadow of the axe.
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