The Queen's Men - (An Agents of the Crown Novel) by Oliver Clements (Paperback)

About the Book

"Masked gunmen ambush Queen Elizabeth as she travels through Waltham forest, peppering her carriage with ball holes before disappearing like wraiths in the night. In the tense hours that follow, while no one knows whether she will live or die, her councillors must make decisions, and roll dice. Some argue for acceptance of the new Queen: Mary of Scotland, while others - John Dee - argue the fight against the darkness must go on, and that he should go across the sea, and into the courts of the Queen's enemies, to do to them what they would do to her. When she survives, Francis Walsingham - responsible for her safety - must explain how such a plot could so nearly succeed: who are the gunmen? How did they know she was coming on that road, that night, and in which carriage she would be travelling? And more importantly, where are they now? Robert Beale, Walsingham's deputy, shaken by the thought of Mary of Scotland inheriting the throne and returning England to Catholicism, stumbles on a solution if such a thing could happen again, but the scheme is lethally fraught with risk, and should it be uncovered, he will be hung, drawn and quartered as a traitor. And in her fever her Majesty dreams of fire, and on waking, comes to believe the only way to protect her country is with Greek Fire, the secret of which died with the Byzantines, but which she commissions her disappointed alchemist and scholar John Dee to rediscover. With the help of one of the Queen's women - Jane Frommond - Walsingham learns the depth and complexity of the plot to kill the Queen; Robert Beale falls violently in love and John Dee reluctantly rediscovers Greek Fire. But their enemy is cunning, and fate fickle. Beale's plot is uncovered, and the Greek Fire stolen, and the Queen's would be assassins evade capture, only to reappear, bent on inflicting a grisly death on Her Majesty. Only one man can stop them. John Dee"--

Book Synopsis

The unputdownable and "lively" (The New York Times) Agents of the Crown series continues with this riveting novel following the original MI6 agent as he is assigned a dangerous mission to recreate a weapon from antiquity.

As she travels through Waltham Forest, Queen Elizabeth I is ambushed by masked gunmen who leave her carriage riddled with holes before disappearing into the night. Knowing that the perpetrators have the Queen's carriage route, her Private Secretary, Sir Francis Walsingham, must find the mystery assailants before they can strike again.

While Queen Elizabeth's Privy Council debates how to best secure the throne in the wake of the attack and Catholic Spain's further intrusion into the Low Countries, the queen herself searches for the ultimate weapon to protect her country and throne: Greek fire, the recipe of which disappeared with the collapse of the Byzantine Empire.

She orders her friend John Dee--scientist, philosopher, and spy--to rediscover this vital secret, despite his misgivings. For he understands that in a world fraught with coded messages, ruthless adversaries, and deadly plot, his mission to secure his nation's future may prove impossible, unless he deploys the most effective weapon of all: intelligence.

Review Quotes

"[A] rollicking new historical thriller . . . . taut, made-for-movie-theater tension and delicious, snickering-from-the-back-row wit."
--New York Times Book Review

"In The Eyes of the Queen, Oliver Clements conjures a remarkable hero: John Dee, an Elizabethan James Bond who dives headlong into a mystery sinister enough to make Le Carré green with envy."
--Keith Thomas, author of The Clarity and Dahlia Black