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Books > Fiction > Genre fiction > Crime & mystery > Historical mysteries
"Buckley draws even the most minor characters with subtlety and
skill, making the dramatic conclusion that much more satisfying."
Publishers Weekly Starred Review February, 1577. Sir William Cecil
has a dangerous new mission for Ursula Blanchard. He has asked her
to visit Stonemoor House on the bleak Yorkshire moors, the home of
a group of recusant women led by Abbess Philippa Gould. In their
possession is an ancient book, and the Queen's advisor, Dr John
Dee, is eager to get hold of it. However, while the Abbess is
anxious to sell the book, others such as her half-sister Bella
believe it to be heretical and demand that it be burned. It is not
Sir William's first attempt to secure the book. His two previous
emissaries vanished without trace. What happened to them - and will
Ursula suffer the same fate?
"The Silver Pigs" is the classic novel which introduced readers
around the world to Marcus Didius Falco, a private informer with a
knack for trouble, a tendency for bad luck, and a frequently
incovenient drive for justice. When Marcus Didius Falco encounters
the young and very pretty Sosia Camillina in the Forum, he senses
immediately that there is something amiss. When she confesses that
she is fleeing for her life, Falco offers to help her and, in doing
so, he gets himself mixed up in a deadly plot involving stolen
ingots, dangerous and dark political machinations, and, most
hazardous of all, one Helena Justina, a brash, indominable
senator's daughter connected to the very traitors that Falco has
sworn to expose.
November, 1932. Still reeling from the recent murder at Mullings,
country estate of the wealthy Stodmarsh family, the peaceful little
village of Dovecote Hatch is about to be rocked by news of another
violent death. When mild-mannered Kenneth Tenneson is found dead
from a fall down the stairs at his home, the coroner's inquest
announces a verdict of accidental death. Florence Norris, however -
the quietly observant housekeeper at Mullings - suspects there may
be more to it than that. Florence's suspicions of foul play would
appear to be confirmed when a second will turns up revealing
details of a dark secret in the Tenneson family's past. Determined
to find out the truth about Kenneth's death, Florence gradually
pieces the clues together - but will she be in time to prevent a
catastrophic turn of events?
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