Realm
The Spanish Armada is ready to set sail from Lisbon while in the Low Countries the Duke of Parma waits with his army to invade England. Much has been written about the Armada and much theorising on whether it was Drake and his expertise and fire ships or the sudden storms which saved England from becoming an extension of Spain, but this book tells the tale from a very different angle.
Walsingham is Elizabeth I’s spymaster. His network is vast and those in his pay are many. Letters and instructions are often carried on the ships which ply between London and the Iberian Peninsula, some of the most famous being those which finally condemned Mary Queen of Scots, the point at which this story opens. In Portugal, ruled by Spain at this time, Inquisitor Garza, a fanatical Jesuit priest, aims to intercept these messages and eventually to become Grand Inquisitor of England when that, too, comes under Spanish rule. Meanwhile back in England Walsingham is worried by the fact that his intelligence sources are drying up and sends his agent, Christian Hardy to find out what is happening.
This is a real page-turner. Drama and suspense are there in plenty. Life in 16th-century England was raw and this book tells it as it was. Once started, I could not put it down and highly recommend it.
