The book continues the adventures of Oliver Cromwell's top agent, Luke Tremayne. As Cromwell's government faces conspiracies and uprisings from royalists, republicans, Catholics, religious extremists, and senior army officers, Luke is sent into Wales to assess the level of antigovernment activity and to solve the murder of a local magistrate. Several more murders follow, and in solving them, Luke confronts devious Welsh gentry, seductive women, a band of highwaymen, smugglers, an evil witch, and a major insurrection against the government.

In 1651, a fatally wounded Scottish trooper is found by an English patrol. Before he takes his last breath, he reveals the details of a major plot being hatched against Scottish leaders and English generals within Clarke Castle-the same castle where many kidnapped Scots are being held.

Luke Tremayne and his sergeant, Andrew Ford, have just arrived in Oban, Scotland, via the English republic's newest man-of-war, the fifty-four gun Providence. As the warship remains anchored in the sea loch, Luke and Andrew come ashore to receive details of their mission from their new ally, David Burns, a man of considerable wealth and passion for his cause. After Burns briefs Luke on the Scots' three political groups, six assailants press up the stairs to Burns' chambers and deliver a pouch that contains a coded message. Luke soon discovers that he must not only rescue the prisoners at Clarke Castle, but also must uncover the local leadership of this organization created by the King.

As Scottish leaders plot and murder their way to a solution, Luke becomes embroiled in a conspiracy to murder the political elite and quickly finds out that an ally is not who he appears to be.

The book continues the adventures of Oliver Cromwell's top agent, Luke Tremayne. As Cromwell's government faces conspiracies and uprisings from royalists, republicans, Catholics, religious extremists, and senior army officers, Luke is sent into Wales to assess the level of antigovernment activity and to solve the murder of a local magistrate. Several more murders follow, and in solving them, Luke confronts devious Welsh gentry, seductive women, a band of highwaymen, smugglers, an evil witch, and a major insurrection against the government.

In 1653, Cromwell sent Luke Tremayne and his deputy Harry Lloyd to Paris to negotiate secretly with exiled King Charles II. After a serious mishap for Luke, Harry is forced to complete the mission alone. Luke is gainfully employed by a French aristocrat to investigate the murder of his first wife and the attempted murder of his second. Harry assists the English courtiers in solving the murder of two young ladies-in-waiting to Queen Mother Henriette Marie, and together with a Royalist peer, is falsely imprisoned and tortured. He escapes and after many life-threatening adventures is rescued on the orders of France's chief minister. Luke's investigations are complicated by a feisty abbess, hysterical nuns, a Canadian adventurer, a rampaging bear, and a mysterious treasure of English Catholic gold and silver--investigations that provoke a series of fatal bombings. Harry's determination to find and exact revenge on a renegade French aristocrat responsible for his torture leads him eventually to the French chateau where Luke is pursuing his villains.

This is a gripping murder mystery set in 1655 against the background of the crumbling government of Oliver Cromwell - a regime beset by power hungry politicians, vengeful Royalists and dissident army officers plotting to kill their leader. Cromwell is obsessed by the murder of an obscure Somerset squire and sends Luke Tremayne to investigate. On arrival in the county Luke discovers that the squire's family and community are deeply divided, with fire and flood the weapons of village conflict. These divisions reveal a multitude of suspects - feuding relatives; corrupt politicians, a secret Royalist society, clandestine militias, Spanish agents, religious fanatics and wanton witches. An unexpected romantic interest and the machinations of the secret society complicate his investigation. He confronts the intrigues of the gentry and aristocracy and the bawdiness, suspicion, superstition and violence of village life. A popular religious fanatic preaching sexual freedom and political murder increases local tension. Further murders and revealing confessions force Luke to focus on other issues which inadvertently lead to more sordid revelations, and a brutal massacre. A mysterious stranger emerges as the prime suspect for anti-government activity, and as the murderer. Luke's friends are killed and he begins to doubt the veracity of others. Eventually through the help of local villagers he obtains the proof he needs and confronts the killer who is not easily brought to justice. In a surprising final twist Luke's world is turned upside down.

In 1650 Luke is sent to Maryland on a joint mission: Catholic proprietor Lord Baltimore seeks to understand his collapsing authority, and General Cromwell needs to assess the situation as a precursor to the English republic's planned attack on the remaining Royalist colonies on the Chesapeake. Luke becomes involved with a dysfunctional planter family of an old adversary which is beset by a series of murders that may stem from an atrocity committed years earlier in England, or from the current political turmoil on the Chesapeake. The situation involves a family breakdown, bitter planter rivalries, piracy, renegade Amerindians, a major Indian conflict, problems along the Delaware, violent weather conditions, a Puritan settlement expelled from Virginia and invited by Baltimore to settle in Maryland - an offer repaid by their determination to reject their Papist overlord and erect God's kingdom, the machinations of neighbouring Virginia, the recreation of a Jesuit mission and the clandestine incursion of a foreign power. Luke struggles to solve the murders and save the Chesapeake for England.

In 1651, a fatally wounded Scottish trooper is found by an English patrol. Before he takes his last breath, he reveals the details of a major plot being hatched against Scottish leaders and English generals within Clarke Castle-the same castle where many kidnapped Scots are being held.

Luke Tremayne and his sergeant, Andrew Ford, have just arrived in Oban, Scotland, via the English republic's newest man-of-war, the fifty-four gun Providence. As the warship remains anchored in the sea loch, Luke and Andrew come ashore to receive details of their mission from their new ally, David Burns, a man of considerable wealth and passion for his cause. After Burns briefs Luke on the Scots' three political groups, six assailants press up the stairs to Burns' chambers and deliver a pouch that contains a coded message. Luke soon discovers that he must not only rescue the prisoners at Clarke Castle, but also must uncover the local leadership of this organization created by the King.

As Scottish leaders plot and murder their way to a solution, Luke becomes embroiled in a conspiracy to murder the political elite and quickly finds out that an ally is not who he appears to be.