The third book (to date) in the Nicholas Shelby series, this is a sixteenth-century spy romp split between Marrakech and London. The settings are clearly and atmospherically created. There’s plenty of murder, plague etc in the plot, but it seems strangely slow-moving – it really does take a long time to get going, and I’m not sure that the wait’s worth it. The back story, in terms of previous adventures and pre-existing relationships, is referred to consistently; this would be fine if you have read them and while it was, of course, completely possible to work out what had happened I think that it would have had a lot more emotional impact with a more detailed understanding. It just left me a bit cold.