The Incendium Plot

Summer, 1572 and England is vulnerable. Fear of plague and insurrection taint the air, and heresy, fanaticism and religious unrest seethe beneath the surface of society. Rumour and mistrust lead to imprisonment, torture and sometimes murder. To the young lawyer Christopher Radcliff and his patron and employer, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the prospects for peace are grave - and as Leicester's chief intelligencer, he is charged with investigating both the rumours of rebellion at home and invasion from abroad. But Radcliff's own life is far from orderly. His relationship with the widow Katherine Allingham is somewhat turbulent and the cut-throat world of court politics leaves no room for indiscretions. That the queen's own cousin, the Duke of Norfolk, is found guilty of treason, it is a sign of just how deep the dissent goes. Jesuit priests have been sent to England in order to foment revolt but the threat of a Catholic uprising comes not just from within. Across the channel, France is caught up in a frenzy of brutal religious persecution and England's other enemy of old, Spain, is making preparations to invade. England is a powder-keg, just waiting for a spark to ignite it - and then Christopher Radcliff hears word of a plot that could provide that spark. The word is 'incendium' - but what does it mean and who lies behind it? Suddenly Christopher Radcliff is caught up in a race against time...