AN ASSASSIN STALKS THE STREET OF LONDON...Tensions in Elizabeth I's government are at breaking point. With Catholic Spain poised to invade, a plot to assassinate Francis Drake is uncovered. In a London rife with rumour, intelligencer John Shakespeare must protect him at all costs. But when the mutilated body of a high-born young woman is found in an illicit printing house, it is political gunpowder-and he has no option but to investigate.