The serpent's mark - SW Perry

Hardcover, 424 pages

Expected publication: June 6th 2019 by Corvus

Series: Nicholas Shelby #2

Historical fiction Mystery Thriller

To review

It was hard solving a crime or getting to the bottom of a conspiracy in the olden days. How anything got done I do not know, but then again, things did not get done so...yeah.

Nicholas was a doctor, but then he could not save his wife from dying in childbirth, so he became a drunkard, then he solved something and on of the queen's men took notice. He also made a good friend in a local tavern owner (and hey maybe one day there will be love there). And now he gets called upon a again.

A young boy is in danger. There is a conspiracy to overthrow queen Elizabeth. And Catholics are sneaking around. Business as usual in London.

I like Nicholas, he has come to see that medicin in that age is total bs. I mean the things they practiced. Horrible! He is smart and resourceful and he does not give up.

Then there is Bianca Merton. Catholic, owns a tavern, and trying to stay under the radar. I do like her. She has a brain, she has guts and she does not take BS. They make a perfect mix to solving a mystery.

I liked the conspiracy in question, and I can not say anything about it. Then there is this devil doctor too who was a creepy zealot. People who think they are right are just so scary.

It is not a fast book, how could it be. Solving this takes time, talking and effort.

I enjoyed it. It makes you think.

Treason sleeps for no man...
London, 1591. Nicholas Shelby, physician and reluctant spy, returns to his old haunts on London's lawless Bankside. But, when the queen's spymaster Robert Cecil asks him to investigate the dubious practices of a mysterious doctor from Switzerland, Nicholas is soon embroiled in a conspiracy that threatens not just the life of an innocent young patient, but the overthrow of Queen Elizabeth herself.
With fellow healer and mistress of the Jackdaw tavern, Bianca Merton, again at his side, Nicholas is drawn into a dangerous world of zealots, charlatans and fanatics. As their own lives become increasingly at risk, they find themselves confronting the greatest treason of all: the spectre of a bloody war between the faiths...