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From Rory Clements, winner of the Ellis Peters Historical Fiction Award, comes The Queen's Man, the sixth in his acclaimed bestselling John Shakespeare Elizabethan mystery series. England is a Judas nest of conspiracyIt is 1582, and the conflict between Protestant and Catholic threatens to tear the country in two. While Queen Elizabeth I holds the reins of power, there are those whose loyalty lies with her imprisoned cousin, Mary Queen of Scots.

England, 1176. Aelred Barling, esteemed clerk to the justices of King Henry II, is dispatched from the royal court with his young assistant, Hugo Stanton, to investigate a brutal murder in a village outside York. The case appears straightforward. A suspect is under lock and key in the local prison, and the angry villagers are demanding swift justice. But when more bodies are discovered, certainty turns to doubt - and amid the chaos it becomes clear that nobody is above suspicion.

Based on actual historical events, A Queen’s Spy is a gripping historical fiction adventure set in 16th-century Tudor England - an epic tale of a young Tudor nobleman’s courage as he tries to keep the future Queen Elizabeth I safe in one of Britain’s most turbulent eras. As a young man, Richard had been attached to Thomas Seymour’s household, working with Seymour’s spy and intelligence network. Seymour and married Henry VIII’s widow, Katherine Parr. Through his wife, he became the guardian of the young Elizabeth Tudor.

Meet Richard Fitzwarren - An anti-hero with a dubious past, questionable morals but unswerving loyalties. Richard grinned and grasping his brother's wrist said, “Terrible apart and even worse together - that would make us a fine family moto. Et mirabilia absque peius.” Jack Fitzwarren, Richard's displaced bastard brother, seeks a place at his brother's side. Impulsive and hot headed, his attempts to gain his brother's acceptance and approval often end badly. Finally the brothers are brought head to head when Richard tries to foil a plot against Elizabeth I.

Summer, 1546. King Henry VIII is slowly, painfully dying. His Protestant and Catholic councilors are engaged in a final and decisive power struggle; whoever wins will control the government. As heretics are hunted across London, and radical Protestants are burned at the stake, the Catholic party focuses its attack on Henry's sixth wife - and Matthew Shardlake's old mentor - Queen Catherine Parr.

The letter came in secret, with a pearl eardrop from an aunt long thought dead, resurrecting the forbidden past. Banished by her spiteful half sister, Queen Mary, to Hatfield House in the English countryside, 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth cannot refuse the summons. The Boleyns are in grave danger. And Elizabeth, daughter of Anne Boleyn, is marked for death by a master poisoner whose reign of terror may have royal sanction.