Conscience of the King Hb [Hardcover]

Stephen Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 4, 2003

It is 1612. Robert Cecil, Chief Secretary to King James I, is dying. Now the threat from the Catholics has decayed, the Puritan majority are gaining an increasing stranglehold over English society. Parliament is starting to flex its muscles against the King whose court drifts shamelessly towards decadence and corruption. And the great period of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama has ended with the abrupt retreat from public life of William Shakespeare. Then Henry Gresham is asked by Cecil's protege, Chief Justice Sir Edward Coke, to trace a precious hand-written play manuscript that has gone missing, presumed stolen by a Cambridge bookseller. Gresham has no cause to realise that he is being used as live bait to draw out a murderous madman who is determined to destroy James I, a madman who was supposed to have died twenty years before, or that he is set to unravel the truth behind the authorship of one of the greatest plays the world has ever seen.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Intrigue, high-life and low-life are brilliantly interwoven in a thriller which has a compelling vividness and pungency. The historical details are utterly convincing; one can see and smell Jacobean England and hear its inhabitants speaking.' LAWRENCE JAMES 'Stephen has a good feel for the momentary decisions that can help to shape the course of history - as well, of course, as the cowardice, vainglory and greed' THE TIMES 'A terrific book' THE SPECTATOR

About the Author

Martin Stephen is High Master of The Manchester Grammar School and author of 15 titles on English literature and military history. He is an experienced broadcaster and journalist who writes regularly for the broadsheets, the DAILY MAIL and the London EVENING STANDARD.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 324 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; First Edition edition (September 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316860026
• ISBN-13: 978-0316860024
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 5.9 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,474,747 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable swashbuckling, July 29, 2005

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ilmk "ilmk" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Conscience of the King Hb (Hardcover)

The second Henry Gresham mystery takes us once more in the the very beginnings of the Stuart dynasty, yet some seven years later on from `A Desperate Remedy'. Sir Gresham is now happily married to Jane, they have two children and the faithful Mannion remains at our erstwhile hero's side. Living in The House which is portrayed in the manner of every englishman's home is his castle, Gresham has become the early 007. Debonair, gifted, physically beautiful, attractive, intelligent and comanding instant love ande respect in his friends and fear in his enemies, all he lacks is the fast cars.
As this is seventeenth century London he can't have them. Still we are subjected to a `high-speed' coach chase and several river boat esacapades in his second adventure.
We are reintroduced to a pox-ridden Kit Marlowe (who's taken a bit of a character mauling at the hands of Martin Stephen), back from the dead for the second time and desparate to avenge himself on Gresham for his perceived actions in getting him exiled in the first place. In addition to this Gresham's age-old foe, Lord Cecil, Earl of Salisbury, dies at the start, not before giving Gresham a mission to track down several vital missing documents penned by the King (James VI/I) to his lover Robert Carr. This gives Gresham the chance to meet his new parliamentary foe - Sir Edward Coke, ably joined by Carr's friend and general thug Sir Thomas Overbury (whom Gresham neatly brings to earth with a literal bloody nose fairly swiftly).
Political intrigue abounds as we weave through a multitude of documents to discover that not only are their explicit love lettes but multiple original versions of Shaskespeare's plays allpointing to the fact that he never wrote them, rather rewrote the more paltry efforts of other authors, Bishop Andrewes, Kit Marlowe and the king himself to name a few. Of course, it `s not quite so simple as that, but we are shown a snivelling, pusillanimous Shakespeare that jars simply on the author's rough treatment of western literature's greatest playwright.
So, with Marlow aiming to get his Fall of Lucifer aired, discredit Will, give Gresham and Jane a dose of the pox and Sirs Edward and Thomas aiming to get Gresham removed we skip from Oxford college rooftops, to a brief sojourn at the King's pleasure in the Tower, to frantic boat chases and kidnaps to its glorious explosive culmination on the Thames. Gresham narrowly avoids death multiple times (though at least he has to undergo serious recuperation each time, rather doesn't spring back unharmed more sprightly than before), and generally cuts a dangerous path through London's upper class hearts and minds on his way to uncovering the truth. A James Bond for the seventeenth century.
All in all highly enjoyable and it appears from the unnecessary postscript at the end that a third is in the pipeline and advisedly so. Henry Gresham joins a long line of superspies and his efforts are well worth the read on that long train journey.