Daniel Pursglove

1606. A year to the day that men were executed for conspiring to blow up Parliament, a towering wave devastates the Bristol Channel. Some proclaim God's vengeance. Others seek to take advantage. In London, Daniel Pursglove lies in prison waiting to die. But Charles FitzAlan, close adviser to King James I, has a job in mind that will free a man of Daniel's skill from the horrors of Newgate. If he succeeds. For Bristol is a hotbed of Catholic spies, and where better for the lone conspirator who evaded arrest, one Spero Pettingar, to gather allies than in the chaos of a drowned city? 

'Full of tension and danger... powerfully atmospheric' JENNIFER SAINT 'A beautifully crafted thriller... Breathtaking and bone-chilling' MANDA SCOTT 'Maitland is a superlative historical novelist' REBECCA MASCULL --- Whispers haunt the walls and treachery darkens the shadows in this captivating...

London, 1607. As dawn breaks, Daniel Pursglove rides north, away from the watchful eye of the King and his spies. He returns, disguised, to his childhood home in Yorkshire - with his own score to settle. The locals have little reason to trust a prying stranger, and those who remember Daniel do so with contempt. When a body is found with rope burns about the neck, Daniel falls under suspicion. On the run, across the country, he is pursued by a ruthless killer whose victims all share the same gallows mark.

London, 1608. Three years after the Gunpowder Treason, the King's enemies prepare to strike again. Daniel Pursglove is tasked by royal command with one final mission: he must infiltrate the Serpents - a secret group of Catholics plotting to kill the King - or risk his own execution. But other conspirators are circling, men who would blackmail Daniel for their own dark ends. In the Serpents' den, nothing is quite as it seems. And when Daniel spies a familiar face among their number, the game takes a dangerous turn.