Rivers of Treason (Daniel Pursglove 3)
Rivers of Treason is the sequel to Traitor in the Ice, following the adventures of Daniel Pursglove, an ‘intelligencer’ commissioned to track down Catholic conspirators in the wake of the Gunpowder Plot. The year is 1607, and conspirators are still active hoping to destroy the King and his government. Not that Daniel is a very reliable intelligencer despite his previous successes, for he has his own agenda which does not always fit with that of his spymasters.
I must admit that had I not read Traitor in the Ice I would have found it difficult to follow who was who and whose side they were on, and even so it wasn’t easy, but I suppose that is in the nature of conspiracies. Traitor in the Ice is a much more compact story set in a single location, but Rivers of Treason flows all over England (Yorkshire, Bristol and several locations in and around London) with new characters at every turn. Yet I kept reading.
Maitland knows 17th-century England so well, and every scene is so atmospheric, whether in Greenwich Palace or a Somerset hovel. The action is fast, a plot is foiled at the crucial moment, but there is more than one conspiracy, leaving us breathless for the next book.
