The year is 1600. With a dying queen on the throne, war raging on the high seas and famine on the rise, England is on the brink of chaos.
And in London’s dark alleyways, a conspiracy is brewing. In the court’s desperate bid to silence it, an innocent man is found guilty — the father of Nicholas Shelby, physician and spy.
As Nicholas races against time to save his father, he and his wife Bianca are drawn into the centre of a treacherous plot against the queen.
When one of Shakespeare’s boy actors goes missing, and Bianca discovers a disturbing painting that could be a clue, she embarks on her own investigation.
Meanwhile, as Nicholas comes closer to unveiling the real conspirator, the men who wish to silence him are multiplying.
When he stumbles on a plan to overthrow the state and replace it with a terrifying new order, he may be forced to make a decision between his country and his heart.
The Sinner’s Mark by SW Perry is published on 6 April, 2023. It’s the sixth book in his Jackdaw Mysteries series.
Find out about the (often gruesome) world of 16th-century physicians like Nicholas in Elizabethan medicine: spectacularly wrong – and likely to kill you.
