London, 1608, and 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 […]
A Plague of Serpents by KJ Maitland
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 […]
Rivers of Treason by K J Maitland
London, 1607, and 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 […]
Parting fools from their money in the brothels and gaming houses of the 1600s
Innocent new arrivals in London were preyed on by brothel owners and gaming houses, says KJ Maitland, author of Rivers of Treason. Here she looks at the kinds of establishments that reeled so-called pigeons and plump virgins into trugging houses and nunneries (low- and high-class brothels) and rigged gaming tables where fools and their money […]
Traitor in the Ice by KJ Maitland
Winter, 1607, and a man is struck down in the grounds of Battle Abbey, Sussex. Before dawn breaks, he is dead. Home to the Montagues, Battle has caught the paranoid eye of King James I. The Catholic household is rumoured to shelter those loyal to the Pope, disguising them as servants within the abbey walls. […]
Traitor in the Ice by KJ Maitland
Winter, 1607, and a man is struck down in the grounds of Battle Abbey, Sussex. Before dawn breaks, he is dead. Home to the Montagues, Battle has caught the paranoid eye of King James. The Catholic household is rumoured to shelter those loyal to the Pope, disguising them as servants within the abbey walls. And […]
How to serve a Tudor feast
Daniel Pursglove, the reluctant spy at the centre of KJ Maitland’s crime-thriller series, is back. In Traitor in the Ice he’s sent to Battle Abbey, seat of the Roman Catholic Montague family, to find a murderer in a nest of suspected priests. Karen tells Historia about the strange rituals that surrounded serving meals in this […]
The Drowned City by KJ Maitland
1606. England stands divided in the wake of the failed Gunpowder Plot. As a devastating tidal wave sweeps the Bristol Channel, rumours of new treachery reach the King. In Newgate prison, Daniel Pursglove receives an unexpected – and dangerous – offer. Charles FitzAlan, close confidant of King James, will grant his freedom – if Daniel […]