The Queen's Man: A John Shakespeare Mystery

British author Rory Clements has returned with his fifth in his "John Shakespeare" series, "The Queen's Man". However, inexplicably, the novel is actually first in sense of time. For everyone who's read the adventures of John Shakespeare, the "intelligencer" to Francis Walsingham, here's the back story. It also includes more about brother Will than have any of the previous books.Rory Clements has placed this Shakespeare novel in the early 1580's, when the queen, Elizabeth I, was trying to maneuver her country's way to worship the "new faith" - Protestantism, Church of England, Anglican - no matter what it was referred to, it was not the "old faith", that of the Roman Catholic Church. The Queen was beset by low-grade but constant problems both at home and abroad and she employed Sir Francis Walsingham as her "spymaster". He, in turn, employed "intelligencers" to do his bidding in trying to discern plots against the crown. One such man was "John Shakespeare", a character Rory Clements has made up, and has taken his readers on adventures in his previous book. (William Shakespeare did not have an older brother called "John", at least according to the bio on Wikipedia, but his father was "John Shakespeare".)In "Queen's Man", Walsingham - who is always stingy with information his "intelligencer" SHOULD know before sending them on their way - is concerned with the presence of Mary, Queen of Scots, who is imprisoned in a castle in England. She is guarded - supposedly well - but there is a question of plots by the French and some home-grown Catholics, to free her and send her to France. Walsingham wants to ferret out the truth and the names of the conspirators. He's also interested in finding out the extent of "recusancy" in the Stratford area. "Recusancy" was the state of those who refused to attend Anglican services and were considered "Popish recusants". Some of the Shakespeare/Hathaway kin are thought to be recusants. Poor John Shakespeare is sent off to investigate this all, and eventually, by book's end, most of the loose ends are tied up in a very satisfactory fashion. (Except, of course, for those murdered in heinous ways).Rory Clements' novels can almost be considered history texts. The reader learns so much about court politics, national politics, social issues, methods of war, etc, of the 1580's and 1590's, that we are educated by his work. This book, "The Queen's Man", is such a good book and would be the best way for a first-time Rory Clements reader to begin looking at Elizabethan England.

This story takes place in John Shakespeare's early career as a Queen's investigator. Unlike other novels in the series which are placed later in John's career and in which William Shakespeare only has cameo roles, William is much more active in the plot line. At this time William is only 18 years old and betrothed to Anne Hathaway. John is sent to check the security of Sheffield Castle in which Mary, Queen of Scots, is held imprisoned by order of Elizabeth, Queen of England. He is also to sniff out any plots of treason. John soon is involved in situations that not only endanger him but his family and friends in his home village of Stratford-on-Avon.This is a very interesting novel taking some plot lines from recorded history. Many of the leading characters are actual historic figures from that time. The author has done a good job of weaving fact and fiction together in this historic novel. The dialogue, characterizations and flow of the story are very well done. I would have enjoyed the novel much more and given it a five star rating but I dislike seeing evil doers going unpunished as a matter of course. Certainly life was hard back in Elizabethan times but some things just seemed a bit much.Item - John Shakespeare is seized while in a tavern, beaten, trussed up and thrown into a dung cart and hauled off to Sir Thomas Lucy. On seeing the condition that John Shakespeare is in Lucy says, "God's death, Badger, I wanted you to ask Mr. Shakespeare to join us so that we might converse not drag him through mud and manure." That is all. A Queen's representative is treated like that and the thug Badger, who hates Shakespeare, is dismissed without even a sharp word. There are just too many other instances of unpunished gratuitous cruelty which took away from my enjoyment of the book.

This "prequel" in the John Shakespeare series takes us back to his beginning in the queen's spy service under Sir Francis Walsingham. For fans of the series -- and I certainly count myself as one -- this book gives background on how Shakespeare entered the service and came to partner with with trusty Boltfoot Cooper. Throughout the books, we've seen Shakespeare eschew the more violent tactics against Catholics in Elizabethan England, even as those objections lead to assumptions that he's too close to Catholics and perhaps one himself. We see the root of that ambivalence as we return to his native Stratford to find fervent, and at this time traitorous, Catholicism among the locals, including many with strong family ties to the Shakespeares. In this drama, Shakespeare works to foil an attempt to free the imprisoned Queen of Scots and place her on the English throne. The book bears all the elements fans have come to enjoy in this series that always delivers a fun, enlightening and entertaining tale. I gave it four stars not five because subsequent books have not lived up to the heart-racing excitement I experienced with the first two books in the series, Martyr and Revenger -- those were so excellent they kept me coming back over and over to John Shakespeare. The Queen's Man was good enough to keep me looking forward to the next book, and I certainly hope there is one.

Shakespeare of course, was reared in a world where politics was about plot and counter plot, torture and the stake. Rory Clements catches the atmosphere exactly as William's brother John grows up to become an agent of Queen Elizabeth and her protestant courtiers. Lots of swash and buckle, much of it set around Stratford-upon-Avon, as the queen's enemies plan her destruction. It is a good read, which probably gets closer to the truth than many worthy histories.

This was said to be book 6, but is obviously the beginning of the JS . saga. If it were to be backstory, I would have liked that in the intro. I was confused for the first chapter or 2.

It is now 1582 and Sir Francis Walsingham has been training John Shakespeare to be his apprentice. So now he has been sent to Sheffield to assess the fortification of the castle holding the Queen of Scots, and then proceed to Warwickshire, his home county to investigate the situation of the secret Catholics.A very enjoyable mystery, I liked most of the characters and look forward to reading the next in the series.

I don't think this was quite up to the standard of CJ Sansom but nonetheless a week constructed tale and I will go through the series.Interesting that this book seems to have been published well after some others in the series even though the first chronologically.You will enjoy this and the series (now on to my next book).

First ebook that I could not finish. Characters are stilted and unconvincing, and the story line pedestrian.Not what I was expecting.

Read this book in 2014, and this book is the 6th in the series, but the 1st in chronological order, and we are going back to the year, AD1582.In this mystery John Shakespeare is sent by his then boss, Spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham to investigate the rumours of a conspiracy to free the Catholic's favourite Queen, Mary Queen of Scots, who's in prison at Sheffield Castle.While investigating this case, he will encounter many hostilities between Catholics and Protestants and not to forget some tentacles of a plot that has its origin in John Shakespeare's native Warwickshire.What is to follow is an intriguing and exciting mystery where John Shakespeare will be tested to the limit concerning his loyalties between his family and his Queen, and so to complete his mission he must find a balance of faith and conviction if his wants to succeed in solving this case satisfactorily in both cases.Very much recommended, for this is a brilliant beginning of this series, and that's why I like to call this great book: "A Magnificent John Shakespeare Mystery!

This is a prequel novel to the series featuring intelligencer John Shakespeare, fictional brother to the playwright. This starts from his youth in the early 1580s when he first comes to the attention of spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham and first makes the acquaintance of the sadistic heresy hunter Topcliffe. I enjoyed this more than the novels covering his later life - John comes across as a more human figure, caught on the horns of the dilemma between loyalty to his Queen and country and the Catholic sympathies of many members of his extended family, the Ardens (his mother's side). His assistant Boltfoot Cooper also came across as a more substantial and deeper character. Last but not least, William himself gets much more of a role here (he is very much in the background where he appears at all in the later novels), here at the point in his early life where he falls in love at the age of 18 with the 26 year old Anne Hathaway. Enjoyable stuff, if rather predictable, having read four of the later novels.