From Publishers Weekly
In this fourth mystery featuring Sir Robert Carey (after A Surfeit of Guns), strong writing and a wealth of detail about Elizabethan London cannot make up for a painfully slow plot. The book opens with Carey and his sidekick, Sergeant Dodd, on the road to London, a clever and lively scene that promises much more action than what actually follows. Carey, based on a historical figure of the same name, has been called to the city by his father, Lord Chamberlain Hunsdon, half-brother to Queen Elizabeth, to search for his missing brother Edmund. It seems Edmund, never the most sensible of men, has gotten himself mixed up in false alchemy and counterfeiting, a crime that is considered treason. As Carey and Dodd investigate the scheme that drew in Edmund, they discover that Thomas Heneage, the greedy and cruel vice chamberlain, is almost certainly involved. Facts, however, are as elusive as Edmund continues to be. Alternately helped and hindered by the playwrights Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, and merely frustrated by the poet Robert Greene, Carey and Dodd dart about the streets of London, visiting bars and churches, literally avoiding the plague as well as the wiles of the lovely Mistress Bassano. Traitors and allies are finally sorted out in the Fleet, a debtor's prison in London that Chisholm (the pseudonym of historical novelist Patricia Finney) portrays in all its sordid misery. (Nov. 30) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
The fourth Sir Robert Carey mystery finds the Deputy Warden of the West Marshes (on the England/Scotland border) returning to London after the adventures chronicled in A Surfeit of Guns (1997). It's August 1592, and Carey, struggling to scrape together enough cash to pay off his debts, finds himself embroiled in a feud between a couple of playwrights: Robert Greene and a young fellow called William Shakespeare. Chisholm displays a real knack for comedy here, in a tale that is noticeably lighter than the earlier installments in the series. This is no lumpy, historically accurate but dramatically dull novel; it's a lively, lifelike adventure that just happens to feature some of the most famous people in the history of drama (Christopher Marlowe also takes a turn). The author's change of pace from more serious fare should please her fans and win her a lot of new ones, too. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"From opening line to bottom line, the felicity of the language leads us through a neatly dove-tailed plot that ranges from high comedy to genuine pathos, but never loses its sense of engagement--because it's dealing with characters who are Real People." --Diana Gabaldon from the Introduction


Book Description
In 1592, dashing courtier Sir Robert Carey took up his northern post as Warden of the West March in order to escape the complications of creditors and court life. Trouble, however, dogs his heels wherever he goes. And where he goes in autumn, after the summer?s misadventures in Carlisle, is back to London upon a summons from his father. Carey is on difficult terms with his powerful sire, Henry, Lord Hunsdon. Hunsdon, son of Anne Boleyn?s elder sister, Mary?and probably of a young King Henry VIII?swings a lot of weight as ?cousin? to Queen Elizabeth. But Hunsdon needs his ingenious younger son, Carey to sort out the difficulties his elder son has got himself into as an innocent party in a plot to discredit the family. Accompanied by the shrewd Sergeant George Dodd, who?s like a fish out of water as he copes with the strange Londoners, Carey tackles Catholics, treachery, and such persons known to history and students of literature as George Greene and Christopher Marlowe who are working as spies and double agents. Most arresting is a portrait of a love-sick, snivelling hanger-on named Will Shakespeare....


About the Author
Patricia Finney (who writes as P. F. Chisholm) has been writing since she was seven and getting paid for it since she was 15. Her first book, A Shadow of Gulls, was published when she was 18 years old, and won the David Higham Award for Best First Novel. She studied Modern History at Wadham College, Oxford. Since which time she has accumulated an American husband, one daughter, two sons, a dog and three cats, plus assorted rodents theoretically owned by her offspring. Her husband’s work as a barrister (an English lawyer, specialising in litigation) has given her fascinating insight into real-life crime and her children have taught her more than she wanted to know about human nature. She has had a variety of jobs which have included editing a medical journal and writing a weekly column in the London Evening Standard. She presently lives in Cornwall, and is working on the next couple of Carey stories, and some screenplays. She is planning a contemporary novel as well, whenever her fulltime work as nanny, chauffeur, handywoman, administrator, accountant and legal secretary gives her a chance to write it.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In 1592, dashing courtier Sir Robert Carey took up his northern post as Warden of the West March in order to escape the complications of creditors and court life. Trouble, however, dogs his heels wherever he goes. And where he goes in autumn, after the summer’s misadventures in Carlisle, is back to London upon a summons from his father. Carey is on difficult terms with his powerful sire, Henry, Lord Hunsdon. Hunsdon, son of Anne Boleyn’s elder sister, Mary—and probably of a young King Henry VIII—swings a lot of weight as "cousin" to Queen Elizabeth. But Hunsdon needs his ingenious younger son, Carey to sort out the difficulties his elder son has got himself into as an innocent party in a plot to discredit the family. Accompanied by the shrewd Sergeant George Dodd, who’s like a fish out of water as he copes with the strange Londoners, Carey tackles Catholics, treachery, and such persons known to history and students of literature as George Greene and Christopher Marlowe who are working as spies and double agents. Most arresting is a portrait of a love-sick, snivelling hanger-on named Will Shakespeare....

SYNOPSIS

In 1592, dashing courtier Sir Robert Carey took up his northern post as Warden of the West March in order to escape the complications of creditors and court life. Trouble, however, dogs his heels wherever he goes. And where he goes in autumn, after the summer’s misadventures in Carlisle, is back to London upon a summons from his father.Carey is on difficult terms with his powerful sire, Henry, Lord Hunsdon. Hunsdon, son of Anne Boleyn’s elder sister, Mary—and probably of a young King Henry VIII—swings a lot of weight as “cousin” to Queen Elizabeth. But Hunsdon needs his ingenious younger son, Carey to sort out the difficulties his elder son has got himself into as an innocent party in a plot to discredit the family. Accompanied by the shrewd Sergeant George Dodd, who’s like a fish out of water as he copes with the strange Londoners, Carey tackles Catholics, treachery, and such persons known to history and students of literature as George Greene and Christopher Marlowe who are working as spies and double agents. Most arresting is a portrait of a love-sick, snivelling hanger-on named Will Shakespeare....

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly