The Queen’s Men

A Reluctant Assassin

The Queen's Gold
England, 1585.
The Sparrowhawk, one of Drake's lost treasure ships, is found wrecked in Devon. Rumours spread through England of its booty, including a mysterious treasure: El Sol Dorado.

Thomas Lewgar, the resentful roommate of aspiring playwright Christopher Marlowe, hears of the rumours. He discovers, too, that the boastful Marlowe is engaged in a web of espionage.

Intrigued and repelled by the irreverent Marlowe, Lewgar joins the poet in seeking the lost treasure. If they can find it, they will be richly rewarded by queen and court.

But they are not the only ones hunting the prize.

A crooked courtier, Henry Howton, has also heard the rumours. In the secret employ of the Spanish, he hopes to find the treasure himself - and he will stop at nothing to get his hands on it.
Betrayal, falsehood, and deceit lie in wait.

The Queen's Jewel
London, 1587

In the wake of Mary Queen of Scots’s execution, England’s capital rejoices at Queen Elizabeth’s escape from assassination.

But all is far from well.

Cambridge scholar Thomas Lewgar tracks down his friend, the renegade playwright Cristopher ‘Kit’ Marlowe.

Absenting himself yet again from University, Marlowe claims to be engaged on government business - seeking out Catholic plotters.

He has in fact uncovered a new plot: a cabal of Catholics plan on using the Queen’s Jewel to support a Spanish invasion.

But Lewgar is far from convinced.

What is the Queen’s Jewel?

And who is the strange young man being moved around England, and said by the Catholics to represent the second coming of Arthur?

In a mission that takes them through playhouses and spies’ dens, to Queen Elizabeth’s court and through secretive country estates, they discover that some knowledge can be deadly…

The Queen's Fire
Summer, 1588

As Philip II’s Grand Armada sails, Elizabeth’s England waits and watches.

In a tense and fearful London, the show must go on. Christopher “Kit” Marlowe is celebrating the success of his first play when a face from his past reappears.

His old friend Thomas Lewgar convinces Marlowe to rejoin Sir Francis Walsingham’s secret service. With the Armada at sea, rumours abound of spies and plots. Yet Lewgar has secrets of his own…

As the pair chase down reports of rogue Spanish agents in Devon and Cornwall, they uncover a murderous plot, code-named The Queen’s Fire. But is London in danger, or Elizabeth herself?

As war rages at sea, Lewgar and Marlowe come face to face with a scheme bigger than either could have imagined, and a mysterious killer who will stop at nothing in the pursuit of Spanish victory.

Steven Veerapen was born in Glasgow and raised in Paisley. Steven is fascinated by the glamour and ghastliness of life in the 1500s. He is the author of fictional and non-fictional works including the Simon Danforth Mysteries, the Ned Savage thrillers and Elizabeth and Essex: Power, Passion and Politics.

Praise for Steven Veerapen:
A Dangerous Trade
'A slow-burn character driven spy story that grips like a thumbscrew tightened by twist after twist towards the end - Le Carre transported to the 1560’s. Brilliant work, based in impressively wide research and the kind of competition that I and a good number of others could well do without!' Peter Tonkin, author of The Ides

Blood Feud: Mary Queen of Scots and The Earl of Moray
'Much-needed analysis of a sinister sibling rivalry.' Marie Macpherson

Elizabeth and Essex: Power, Passion and Politics
'A sensitive and lively account of one of the most politically significant relationships of the Elizabethan age.' Lisa Hopkins