"Adroitly blends British history with a wonderful cast of actual and fictional characters. And the Stocks, are, always, enterprising detectives and superb guides to 16th century London." ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH As Queen Elizabeth lays dying, there is a plot afoot to unseat her principle advisor, Sir Robert Cecil . Merchant-constable Matthew Stock's considers Sir Robert his master, and, determined to help his lord in any way, Matthew is lured to a murder scene--and the bloody knife next to the body turns out to be his own. Only the industrious and clever Joan Stock, Matthew's steadfast wife, is a liberty to save his neck from the gallows, that is until the plotters turn toward her--aiming to rid themselves of the one body who stands in their way.