Book
The Angel’s Mark
First published 2018
London, 1590. Physician Nicholas Shelby is already struggling with a devastating personal loss when the marked body of a poor boy draws his attention to deaths that the authorities are willing to dismiss. As more victims appear, he begins an investigation among the streets and riverside communities of the capital, helped by Bianca Merton, the resourceful mistress of the Jackdaw tavern and a skilled practitioner of herbal medicine. Their search for a killer soon brings Nicholas to the notice of Robert Cecil, who has uses of his own for a doctor able to move between social worlds.
Perry makes the murder mystery an introduction to the surveillance state of late Elizabethan England. Cecil sends Nicholas to the household of the Catholic peer John Lumley, forcing him to balance medical judgement against political suspicion as fears of recusancy, Spanish intrigue and treason surround the crown. The novel combines crime, medicine and espionage while establishing the partnership between Nicholas and Bianca that drives the rest of the Jackdaw Mysteries.
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