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Anna Castle

Brilliant Francis Bacon is at a loss -- and in danger.

Francis Bacon is charged with investigating the murder of a fellow barrister at Gray's Inn. He recruits his unwanted protégé Thomas Clarady to do the tiresome legwork. The son of a privateer, Clarady will do anything to climb the Elizabethan social ladder.

Bacon's powerful uncle Lord Burghley suspects Catholic conspirators of the crime, but other motives quickly emerge. Rival barristers contend for the murdered man's legal honors and wealthy clients. Highly-placed courtiers are implicated as the investigation reaches from Whitehall to the London streets.

Bacon does the thinking; Clarady does the fencing. Everyone has something up his pinked and padded sleeve. Even the brilliant Francis Bacon is at a loss — and in danger — until he sees through the disguises of the season of Misrule.

"Castle's characters brim with zest and real feeling." — Kirkus Starred Review.

Don't dally! Jump right into this first book in the award-winning Francis Bacon mystery series.

Joel Froomkin

A Francis Bacon Mystery

Murder by Misrule

Thomas Clarady risks his life, his eternal soul — and his chastity!

Tom is recruited to spy on a group of radical Puritans at Cambridge University with Francis Bacon as his spymaster -- his tutor in tradecraft and politics. Their commission gets off to a deadly start when Tom finds his chief informant hanging from the roof beams. Now he has to catch a murderer as well as a seditioner. His first suspect is the volatile poet Christopher Marlowe, who keeps turning up in the middle of Tom's investigations.

Dogged by unreliable assistants, chased by lusty women, and harangued daily by the exacting Bacon, Tom risks his heart and soul to stop the villains and win his reward.

First In Category for the 2015 Chaucer Awards Elizabethan/Tudor period.

Death by Disputation

London, 1588: Someone is turning Catholics into widows, taking advantage of armada fever to mask the crimes. Francis Bacon is charged with identifying the murderer by the Andromache Society, a widows’ guild led by his formidable aunt. He must free his friends from the Tower, track an exotic poison, and untangle multiple crimes to determine if the motive is patriotism, greed, lunacy — or all three.

The Widows Guild

It’s 1589 and England is embroiled in a furious pamphlet war between an impudent Puritan calling himself Martin Marprelate and London’s wittiest writers. The archbishop wants Martin to hang. The Privy Council wants the tumult to end. But nobody knows who Martin is or where he’s hiding his illegal press.

Then two writers are strangled, mistaken for Thomas Nashe, the pamphleteer who is hot on Martin’s trail. Francis Bacon is tasked with stopping the murders — and catching Martin, while he’s about it. But the more he learns, the more he fears Martin may be someone dangerously close to home.

Can Bacon and his band of intelligencers stop the strangler before another writer dies, without stepping on Martin’s possibly very important toes?

Publish and Perish

Secret trysts, daring dalliances, and a pair of pedigreed hounds

keep Francis Bacon and his team busy while trying to catch a reckless murderer.

It’s Midsummer, 1591, at Richmond Palace, and love is in the air. Gallant courtiers sport with great ladies while Tom and Trumpet bring their long-laid plans to fruition at last. Everybody’s doing it — even Francis Bacon enjoys a private liaison with the secretary to the new French ambassador. But the queen loathes scandal and will punish anyone rash enough to get caught.

Still, it’s all in a summer day until a man is found dead in the orchard. The youth had few talents beyond a keen nose for gossip. He was doubtless murdered to keep a secret, but what sort? Romantic, or political? They carried different penalties — banishment from court or a traitor’s death. Either way, worth killing to protect.

Bacon wants nothing more than to leave things alone. He has no position and no patron. But can he live with himself if another innocent person dies?

Philip Battley

Let Slip the Dogs

Anthony Bacon returns after thirteen years in France to live in his brother’s house at Gray’s Inn. Though seldom strong enough to leave his rooms, his gouty legs never hinder his agile mind. He’s built the most valuable intelligence service in Europe. Now the Bacon brothers are ready to offer it to the patron with the deepest pockets.

Then Francis finds a body lying near Anthony’s coach. The clues inside point to Anthony’s secretary. Worse, the murdered man had been spreading rumors that could destroy Anthony’s reputation.

Francis thinks his brother did it. Assistant Thomas Clarady thinks the secretary did it. As they investigate, they hear one story after another about what happened. Which is the truth? Can they sort through the lies before disaster strikes?

The Spymaster's Brother

London, 1593. An anonymous ballad calls for violence. The mayor offers 100 crowns for the author’s name. Thomas Clarady wants that money and drags Francis Bacon in to help.

Then the authorities turn on two popular playmakers. One is tortured. Another is killed in a brawl. The official story seems plausible, but Tom doesn’t buy it. He refuses stop digging, uncovering a plot best left buried.

Bacon and his team must hazard their lives to find the truth. Whether justice can be obtained is another matter.