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...

The Angel's Mark - SW Perry

Hardcover, 424 pages

Expected publication: September 6th 2018 by Corvus Books

Historical fiction /mystery

For review

My Thoughts

Someone is killing people and leaving marks on them. And there is just one person who finds this strange. But then why would the rest care, poor people die all the time.

Nicholas is a physician. A good man. An honest man. And then he kind of looses himself. Poor man.

I find it hard to review this one without saying too much. I did not expect it to be this hard.

So, it is a country of suspicion. You have to belong to the right church or else!
A woman doing a man's job! Take her down!
And physicians doing what they think is best (ugh, medicine in those days wasn't the best as you can imagine.)
And when Nicholas goes a bit ...crazy, no one gets why. Idiots.

It is not an easy mystery to solve. Usually some clues are found in books, but here, nothing. This is a killer that knows how to hide and as the pages got fewer and fewer and did not know if he ever would find the answer.

And of course I never saw it coming, but how could I? Neither did he.

I wonder why authors like mystery books in Elizabethan England, because I have read a few. Weird. Must be a  good setting! And it is with all the things going on in the background.

Conclusion:
You will never see it coming.

Blurb:
LONDON, 1590. Queen Elizabeth I's control over her kingdom is wavering. Amidst a tumultuous backdrop of Spanish plotters, Catholic heretics and foreign wars threatening the country's fragile stability, the body of a small boy is found in the City of London, with strange marks that no one can explain.

When idealistic physician Nicholas Shelby finds another body displaying the same marks only days later, he becomes convinced that a killer is at work, preying on the weak and destitute of London.

Determined to find out who is behind these terrible murders, Nicholas is joined in his investigations by Bianca, a mysterious tavern keeper. As more bodies are discovered, the pair find themselves caught in the middle of a sinister plot. With the killer still at large, and Bianca in terrible danger, Nicholas's choice seems impossible - to save Bianca, or save himself...