The Queen's Men

October 18, 2021
Set in 1577, Clements’s exciting sequel to 2020’s The Eyes of the Queen vividly recreates the cloak-and-dagger intrigues of the Elizabethan era. The seriously ill Elizabeth, against the counsel of her advisers who are worried about assassins, insists on returning to her London palace from Hertfordshire. En route, her caravan is accosted by armed men who fire multiple shots into the monarch’s carriage before fleeing, mortally wounding one of the occupants. Initially believed to be the queen, the victim proves to be the teenage daughter of a knight who was riding in the royal carriage while the sick queen was being transported in a separate vehicle. The attempt at regicide, along a route whose details were closely guarded, leads Elizabeth to charge Francis Walsingham, “Her Majesty’s Principal Private Secretary,” with tracking down the killers and identifying the men behind them. At the same time, she orders alchemist John Dee to recreate a legendary weapon, Greek fire, to use against the Spanish. Clements smoothly blends a fast-paced plot with evocative period detail. S.J. Parris fans will be pleased.

Starred review from November 1, 2021

Clements's second "Agents of the Crown" novel (after The Eyes of the Queen) is a fast-paced, riveting historical thriller narrated by various supporters of Queen Elizabeth I; it asks the question "What if the Good Queen Bess were a spy?" While all of England watches the Great Comet of 1577, the queen falls ill and elects to return to London. When her entourage reaches Waltham Forest, they're attacked by a dozen gunmen who leave her carriage riddled with holes (fortunately, she wasn't inside it at the time). Her spymaster, Francis Walsingham, had no warning--heard no rumors--that there might be an attempt on the queen's life; now he must track down the would-be assassins. All of the queen's supporters, even a lady-in-waiting, get involved in plots to protect her (and to save their own necks if all goes awry). As for Elizabeth, she turns to an old friend, the scientist John Dee, to discover a formula for a weapon to use against her Spanish enemies. In a tense climatic scene during the queen's birthday celebration in 1578, plots and counterplots merge, and the queen once again comes under attack. VERDICT Clements's mystery might be too violent for some, but fans of historical spy novels will be hooked.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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