A gripping historical thriller full of compelling detail and narrative twists in the vein of C. J. Sansom that received blanket rave reviews in hardcover

From the author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England, now a major BBC 2 TV series comes a brilliant and enthralling debut historical thriller in the vein of C.J. Sansom. London, 1563. England is a troubled nation. Catholic plots against the young Queen Elizabeth spring up all over the country. The herald William Harley - known to everyone as Clarenceux - receives a book from his friend and fellow Catholic, Henry Machyn. But Machyn is in fear of his life...What secret can the book hold? And then Clarenceux is visited by the State in the form of Francis Walsingham and his ruthless enforcers, who will stop at nothing to gain possession of it. If Clarenceux and his family are to survive the terror of the state, he must solve the clues contained in the book to unlock its dangerous secrets before it's too late. And when he does, he realises that it's not only his life and the lives of those most dear to him that are at stake...

James Forrester is a pen name for historian Dr Ian Mortimer. Dr Mortimer is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the author of four highly acclaimed medieval biographies. He is also the author of The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England which was a Sunday Times top ten bestseller and The Time Traveller's Guide to Elizabethan England, now a major BBC 2 TV series. He lives with his wife and three children on the edge of Dartmoor. For more information,