The Scar-Crow Men

The year is 1593. The London of Elizabeth I is in the terrible grip of the Black Death. As thousands die from the plague and the queen hides behind the walls of her palace, English spies are being murdered across the city. The killer's next target: Will Swyfte.

For Swyfte--adventurer, rake, scholar, and spy--this is the darkest time he has known. His mentor, the grand old spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham, is dead. The new head of the secret service is more concerned about his own advancement than defending the nation, and a rival faction at the court has established its own network of spies. Plots are everywhere, and no one can be trusted. Meanwhile, England's greatest enemy, the haunted Unseelie Court, prepares to make its move.

A dark, bloody scheme, years in the making, is about to be realized. The endgame begins on the night of the first performance of Dr. Faustus, the new play by Swyfte's close friend and fellow spy Christopher Marlowe. A devil is conjured in the middle of the crowded theater, taking the form of Will Swyfte's long-lost love, Jenny--and it has a horrifying message for him alone.

That night Marlowe is murdered, and Swyfte embarks on a personal and brutal crusade for vengeance. Friendless, with enemies on every side and a devil at his back, the spy may find that even his vaunted skills are no match for the supernatural powers arrayed against him.

From Booklist

The next volume in Chadbourn's Swords of Albion series continues the adventures of Will Swyfte, spy and swordsman, this time in the middle of the plague of 1593. The Unseelie court continues its assault on the court of Queen Elizabeth, and the agents of Sir Robert Cecil and the Earl of Essex prefer to fight each other rather than the enemies of England. On the day of the first performance of Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, the playwright disappears, and Swyfte must fight both human and supernatural enemies to find and possibly avenge his friend. Chadbourn is a highly visual writer, and his setting of the late sixteenth century is most vivid. The plot has action to spare'indeed, Swyfte has been compared to James Bond'but the dialogue is a bit studied and the pacing somewhat uneven. While not the perfect reads, the books in this series are likely to please historical- and fantasy-action readers.