As Queen Elizabeth slowly dies, Puritans and Papists play a deep game of deception.
A plot is already afoot to unseat her principal advisor, Sir Robert Cecil. Therefore merchant-constable Matthew Stock, who considers Sir Robert his master, becomes a principal pawn. He is lured to the scene of a heinous murder - and the bloody knife next to the body turns out to be his own.
The crime calls for the penalty of death. Only Joan, Matthew’s wife, is able to save his neck from the gallows. That is, until the plotters, having bested Sir Robert and Matthew, turn their wicked attentions toward her - aiming to rid themselves of the one body who stands in their way…
Praise for Leonard Tourney’s Matthew and Joan Stock mysteries:
'Vividly evocative of the era and marvelously readable' - People
'Tourney’s tales of Elizabethan detection [are] far superior to the usual intrigue-behind-court-walls saga.… The Stocks make wonderful guides to a world quite different from our own, yet sometimes shockingly familiar' – Publishers Weekly
'Adroitly blends British history with a wonderful cast of actual and fictional characters. And the Stocks are, as always, enterprising detectives and superb guides to 16th-century London' – St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Leonard Tourney lives in Santa Barbara and teaches English at the University of California. Witness of Bones is his seventh mystery in the Matthew and Joan Stock series.
As Queen Elizabeth slowly dies, Puritans and Papists play a deep game of deception.
A plot is already afoot to unseat her principal advisor, Sir Robert Cecil. Therefore merchant-constable Matthew Stock, who considers Sir Robert his master, becomes a principal pawn. He is lured to the scene of a heinous murder - and the bloody knife next to the body turns out to be his own.
The crime calls for the penalty of death. Only Joan, Matthew’s wife, is able to save his neck from the gallows. That is, until the plotters, having bested Sir Robert and Matthew, turn their wicked attentions toward her - aiming to rid themselves of the one body who stands in their way…
Praise for Leonard Tourney’s Matthew and Joan Stock mysteries:
'Vividly evocative of the era and marvelously readable' - People
'Tourney’s tales of Elizabethan detection [are] far superior to the usual intrigue-behind-court-walls saga.… The Stocks make wonderful guides to a world quite different from our own, yet sometimes shockingly familiar' – Publishers Weekly
'Adroitly blends British history with a wonderful cast of actual and fictional characters. And the Stocks are, as always, enterprising detectives and superb guides to 16th-century London' – St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Leonard Tourney lives in Santa Barbara and teaches English at the University of California. Witness of Bones is his seventh mystery in the Matthew and Joan Stock series.