Martyr

An Elizabethan Thriller

By: Rory Clements

Narrated by: Simon Vance

The year is 1587. One of Queen Elizabeth's cousins is found murdered, her flesh marked with profane symbols. A plot to assassinate Sir Francis Drake, England's most famous sea warrior, is discovered. One man is charged with the desperate task of solving both cases: John Shakespeare.

Shadowed by his rival, the Queen's chief torturer, Shakespeare travels through an underworld of spies, sorcerers, whores, and theater people---including his younger brother, the struggling playwright Will---to piece together a complex conspiracy, the implications of which are almost too horrific to contemplate.

For a zealous and cunning killer is stalking England's streets. And as Shakespeare threatens to reveal the madman's identity, he and the beautiful woman he desires come ever closer to becoming the next martyrs to the cause.

©2008 Rory Clements (P)2009 Tantor

Critic reviews

"Excellent.... The characters, action and period detail are all solid." ( Publishers Weekly Starred Review)

A good mystery set in Elizabethan times

An unusual setting, which I liked, and the reader sparked my imagination quite well ! Who murdered this highborn lady in such a ghastly way, and why? You will have to buy the book !!

not as good as expected

I understand the Elizabethan times were filled with torture. Did not enjoy vivid descriptions of the effects of the various devices.

Great Entertainment

This ripping yarn is a first-rate historical novel and a gripping mystery, read by the excellent Simon Vance. Usually, I don't care for blending fact and fiction, but this one pulled it off through a complex, tangled plot and expert storytelling. I couldn't recommend it more highly!

Blood and religion

It sometimes seems as if all the authors responsible for the recent plethora of novels set in Tudor England feel obligated to include a scene involving drawing and quartering (the gruesome fate of non-noble traitors). When "Martyr" started out with a totally gratuitous detailed description of this horrific form of execution, I almost didn't continue, thinking the book was just going to be a clich??d catalog of titillating tortures.

There is plenty of torturing and plenty of bloodletting and plenty of suffering as the book goes along, but the story picks up pace and gets more interesting (if only barely plausible). I always enjoy Simon Vance???s narrations, and have listened to so many of them that his voice makes me feel right at home. If you like Vance's voice and you???re not yet tired of the Tudors, you???ll probably enjoy this one.

Another choice, if Audible ever gets a chance to offer them, would be Edward Marston's Nicholas Bracewell novels, especially the first one ("The Queen's Head"), which covers similar territory to "Martyr." Like "Martyr," the Bracewell novels have a Shakespearean theater connection, but they are more original (or maybe just seemed that way when I read them back in the 20th century) and less sensationalistic.

Simon Vance is fantastic

If you like historical novels, then give this a try. The narration is great, and the story is a thriller. (the author takes much poetic license, with individuals and happenstance). I would love to see a sequel to this. I really did enjoy Williams brother John Shakespeare, who is an agent for Queen Elizabeth I. There is some really, nasty brutality, and the fact that people can be used like chattel, is not that far fetched, since those in power could be brutal, because they could be. You have to remember the year was 1588, and 99% of the population didn't even have a chamber pot *If you have a weak stomach, you may want pass on this. However I did enjoy the narration and story, and would recommend to friends.