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Series
The third Tom Swan adventure returns to the networks of collectors, bankers, soldiers and spies that connect Renaissance Italy with England and the Ottoman world. After Belgrade, Swan’s knowledge of classical antiquity is inseparable from the reputation he has acquired as an agent capable of surviving difficult missions.
The available parts follow a new search in which relics and documents become instruments of finance and diplomacy. The rivalries of Italian courts, the Wars of the Roses and Ottoman expansion force Swan to decide whether scholarship can remain a neutral pursuit when every discovery is claimed by patrons seeking power.
Reading order
After Belgrade, Tom Swan attempts to resume the trade in books, art and antiquities that first drew him across Europe. His reputation as a survivor and intelligence agent makes anonymity impossible, and employers in Italy see his contacts in the Ottoman world and northern courts as…
Tom Swan follows the trail of a classical object through merchant houses and diplomatic circles where provenance matters less than possession. Each patron presents the commission as scholarship, but the same object may serve as collateral, dynastic propaganda or proof of a secret alliance. Swan’s investigation…
The struggle surrounding Swan’s commission expands beyond Italy as English factional politics create new opportunities for agents and financiers. Connections to the Earl of Warwick give Swan access to power but also expose him to a conflict in which messages, credit and foreign support can be…
Tom Swan’s search reaches its final stage as the object, documents and people at the centre of the conspiracy are forced into the open. Italian courts, Ottoman interests and northern factions all want an outcome that protects their own version of the truth. Swan must complete…