Silent Court

Christopher Marlowe continues his spying for Francis Walshingham in the hopes of protecting Elizabethan England from invasion by Spain.  He is now assigned to travel to Delft to aid a Protestant leader there.

Marlowe decides to join a group of Egyptians who are conjurers and tumblers on their way to the fairs of Flanders.  The Egyptians don't welcome him with open arms, that is until he produces a small bag of gold.  They plan on stopping at Ely on their way to the coast to visit John Dee, someone Marlowe knows from the past.

Shortly after arriving at Dee's magic and death occur.

Meantime Joseph Fludd, Constable of Cambridge is in search of the Egyptians.  While he is away, a dastardly murder occurs.  Some blame the Egyptians, but it doesn't take long for Fludd to prove otherwise.

While in Delft, Marlowe and the Egyptians manage to save the life of William the Silent not once, but twice.  Where are the threats to his life coming from?  But it rouses one of the Egyptians to flee back to England in the darkness of the night, and Marlowe doesn't know which one it is.  He just knows that it is urgent to follow him.

In wrapping up this historical mystery, author M. J. Trow throws a few twists at the reader.  All-in-all a very good read.