A grand crime/who dunnit. This story held my attention from the get go. The historical accuracy of 16th Century London has the reader immediately sucked into the extremes of dirt and squalor compared with those that seems to have it all. The authors get credit for interpreting the Elizabethan Protestant beliefs and political intrigue for the reader where in our modern world, thankfully, we 're moving away from such prejudice. The characters feel real and human. In the first book I had cried when Nicholas lost his wife in child birth. In this book the meeting with his papa made me tear up again, Families must have had to be totally stoic or loose the will to survive. There is strength in these characters, Nick's life experience as a questioning Physician and a soldier makes him believably politically aware and despite Bianca's life experience she to is believably politically naïve. An 'act first think about it later' sort of girl has you wanting to grab her hand and want to make her stop and think. That Nick and Bianca manage to rattle and stumble through murder and religious prejudice amid rampant racism and sexism had me wanting to put the Pope, Cecil and Luther on a bonfire myself! Loved this gripping and intriguing thriller.