A Suspicion of Silver Read online

  A SUSPICION OF SILVER

  The Ninth Sir Robert Carey Mystery

  “Chisholm smoothly inserts realistic details of daily life in 16th-century Britain into this fast-moving historical. Those interested in the mining techniques of the period will be gratified.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  A CLASH OF SPHERES

  The Eighth Sir Robert Carey Mystery

  “I love P.F. Chisholm’s mysteries! A Clash of Spheres has it all: heart-thumping suspense, wry humor, political intrigue, a king in peril. Robert Carey is irresistible, a swashbuckling courtier who is cousin to the Tudor queen, impulsive, courageous, too clever by half, in love with an unhappily married woman, and best of all, it is all true.”

  —Sharon Kay Penman, New York Times Bestselling Author

  “The court of Elizabeth I once more outpaces today’s politicians for cunning, effrontery, and vengeful machinations. As usual, Chisholm moves effortlessly from fascinating historical background to philosophical musings to violent action.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “A climactic chapter features a debate between supporters of the Earth-centered Ptolemaic system and advocates of the rival Copernican system. Chisholm does a good job illuminating the quandary felt by many when new scientific discoveries challenged the old religion. Loyal to his queen and his conscience, Carey proves an able statesman in an installment full of adventure and intrigue.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  A CHORUS OF INNOCENTS

  The Seventh Sir Robert Carey Mystery

  “This time out, it’s Sir Robert Carey’s unhappily married love, Elizabeth, who solves a murder steeped in political intrigue... One of Chisholm’s best Elizabethan mysteries, combining all the historical information readers have come to expect with a swiftly moving story featuring a strong woman whose romantic aspirations have yet to be fulfilled.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “Chisholm illuminates the daily life of the period from the social position of women and children to food preparation, religion, and dentistry, as the action builds to the surprising conclusion.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  AN AIR OF TREASON

  The Sixth Sir Robert Carey Mystery

  “My favorite fictional sleuth, the dashing Robert Carey, and a mysterious death that we still find baffling; what really happened to Amy Robsart, the inconvenient wife of Queen Elizabeth’s lover, the Earl of Leicester? It does not get any better than this.”

  —Sharon Kay Penman, New York Times Bestselling Author

  “In recommending An Air of Treason, I’m also faunching with enthusiasm for the whole series of mysteries set in Elizabethan times and featuring Sir Robert Carey, courtier, dandy, swordsman, romantic (he married for love, unusual at the time), a man who made malefactors shake and tailors weep. Chisholm has neatly avoided all the banes of historical fiction—first and foremost, she allows the Elizabethans to be themselves, not 21st-century people crammed into doublets and farthingales....The characters are deeply realized… and just plain fun to be around, whether real ones like Carey and Gloriana herself (or, in a bit part, Shakespeare) or splendidly imagined ones like Carey’s surly, larcenous and loyal henchman Henry Dodd, Land Sergeant of Gilsland and member of the Carlisle garrison...Sir Robert Carey is distilled essence of Elizabethan, and the books which revolve around him are as successful as both adventure and mysteries...”

  —S M Sterling, New York Times Bestselling Author

  “Elizabeth I relies upon Sir Robert Carey to investigate troublesome problems. This time, the queen is the prime suspect in a long-ago murder, and Carey might be overwhelmed. Tudor fans will be captivated by the sixth, well-researched historical adventure.”

  —Library Journal

  A MURDER OF CROWS

  The Fifth Sir Robert Carey Mystery

  “Sir Robert Carey is back at last in this fifth novel in PF Chisholm’s Sir Robert Carey series, with the redoubtable Sergeant Henry Dodd matching wits with Sir Robert’s mother, the darling and deadly Lady Hunsdon. Well worth the wait.”

  —Dana Stabenow, New York Times Bestselling Author

  “The renegade English professor in me let out a howl of delight.”

  —Joanne Dobson, author of the Karen Pelletier mysteries

  “Chisholm’s fifth mystery starring Sir Robert Carey, deputy warren of the English West Marsh, is brimming with Elizabethan atmosphere and historical detail...This very busy plot will delight historical fans who enjoy local color. Recommend Chisholm’s series to fans of Karen Harper and Simon Hawke.”

  —Barbara Bibel, Booklist

  “This fast-moving tale becomes a winner...A fun read for fans of Elizabethan mysteries.”

  —Library Journal

  “The author, a master of the time period, paints a vivid picture of life in London, especially in the seamier undersides. Will Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe are present, as is the ‘King of London.’”

  —Historical Novel Society

  A PLAGUE OF ANGELS

  The Fourth Sir Robert Carey Mystery

  “A splendidly detailed picture of 16th-century England...”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “The fourth Sir Robert Carey mystery finds the Deputy Warden of the West Marshes (on the England/Scotland border) returning to London after the adventures chronicled in A Surfeit of Guns (1997). It’s August 1592, and Carey, struggling to scrape together enough cash to pay off his debts, finds himself embroiled in a feud between a couple of playwrights: Robert Greene and a young fellow called William Shakespeare. Chisholm displays a real knack for comedy here…”

  —Booklist

  “The book opens with Carey and his sidekick, Sergeant Dodd, on the road to London, a clever and lively scene...Alternately helped and hindered by the playwrights Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare, and merely frustrated by the poet Robert Greene, Carey and Dodd dart about the streets of London, visiting bars and churches, literally avoiding the plague as well as the wiles of the lovely Mistress Bassano. Traitors and allies are finally sorted out in the Fleet, a debtor’s prison in London that Chisholm (the pseudonym of historical novelist Patricia Finney) portrays in all its sordid misery.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  A SURFEIT OF GUNS

  The Third Sir Robert Carey Mystery

  “I’ve just been reading the Robert Carey books, and they’re my most recent rave. The style, background, and stories are marvelous—and I’m madly in love with Sergeant Dodd.”

  —Diana Gabaldon, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of the Outlander Novels

  “A Surfeit of Guns is the third novel featuring Robert Carey—incidentally, he was a real person; his memoirs were published in 1972—and it will delight fans of historical mysteries.”

  —David Pitt, Booklist

  “In 1592, part of Carey’s duty is to patrol the disputed borderlands between Scotland and England and keep the Scots at bay…. Chisholm’s vivid descriptions involve all of the senses, but the author has a knack for conjuring up the most repelling smells, so common to that time and further emphasizing what 16th-century life was truly like. The author adeptly weaves the story’s threads from beginning to end, ever twining the bits and pieces of the complex plot into its final patterns. YAs who read historical fiction or mysteries will enjoy this marvelously written novel and will want to seek out Chisholm’s other titles about Carey.”

  —School Library Journal

  A SEASON OF KNIVES

  The Second Sir Robert Carey Mystery

  “Action and adventure abound in this animat
ed historical whodunit.”

  —Margaret Flanagan, Booklist

  “After a skirmish on the Scottish border, Sir Robert Carey, Deputy Warden of the English West Marsh in 1592, finds one of his men maimed by an exploding pistol. Carey discovers more faulty weapons back at Carlisle Castle, but these are soon stolen, necessitating a dangerous goodwill trip to the riotous camp of the predatory Scottish King James. Feuding clans, political unrest, rowdy humor and exploits, unwise love affairs, and the plight of the poor all play a part in this skillful re-creation of a period rich in action and opportunity.”

  —Library Journal

  “Chisholm’s brilliant depiction of 16th-century English life, high and low, domestic and public, is neatly held together by his believable and engaging protagonist.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Ms. Chisholm’s narrative is brimming with period detail so artfully woven in that it’s never intrusive. A Season of Knives is a must-read for those who prefer their Elizabethan adventure served with a hearty helping of whodunit.”

  —Historical Novel Society

  A FAMINE OF HORSES

  The First Sir Robert Carey Mystery

  “A briskly paced debut rich in spiky characters, eccentric accents, and, above all, a charismatic hero with a sense of honor and a sense of humor.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “Refreshing, startling.”

  —Sunday Telegraph

  “P.F. Chisholm admits that she has fallen ‘hook, line and sinker’ for the charming Sir Robert—and I must say that readers will fall for him too. The sense of place and the language is all marvelously real. And it’s great fun, too!”

  —Historical Novel Society

  Diana Gabaldon, #1 Bestselling author of the

  Outlander Novels, on A Clash of Spheres

  “This is one of the most entertaining, elegant and deeply emotional books I’ve read in years. I’ve loved the Robert Carey series since the first book, and every one thereafter has had all the elements that made A Famine of Horses so engaging: a fascinating look at little-known parts of Elizabethan history, wonderfully immersive details, hilarious dialogue, adventurous situations, and—above all—characters drawn with a deftness that catches the essence of a soul in a few words. Sir Robert is the center of it all, of course, but the story certainly doesn’t stop with him. He’s surrounded by a constantly evolving (and revolving) constellation of courtiers, reivers, Borderers (often synonymous with reivers), Sergeant Dodd (his surly, dour, stubborn, honorable sidekick), scholars, assassins, spies, royalty, and (to be sure) women…

  “All of this would be more than enough for your ordinary historical novel…but this one’s not an ordinary historical novel: it’s an orrery. To save your looking that up—you’ve doubtless seen one, even if you didn’t know what it’s called—it’s a mechanical model of the solar system. And those you’ve seen have undoubtedly been designed to fit the Copernican theory of astronomy: to wit, with the sun in the center and the various planets orbiting it at varying distances. But it was not always thus…

  “Back in Sir Robert’s day—i.e., the late sixteenth century—there were competing views of the stars and their movements, and scholars who espoused the Ptolemaic system, in which the planets and the sun all (naturally) circled the Earth, were more popular than the upstart (and obviously deluded) Copernicans. Only in a P.F. Chisholm novel will you have a delayed-fuse plot that centers (you should pardon the expression) on a formal scientific disputation regarding the position of the sun in the solar system, held at the Royal Court of Scotland, between the King and an itinerant Jewish healer.

  “Not that there aren’t plenty of other plots orbiting that one: religious persecution, murder in several shades, rejected lovers of all stripes and persuasions, and the head-butting politics of the constantly feuding Border surnames.

  “The novel is an orrery, though; the underlying structure of the book reflects all the intricacies with which people orbit each other, mostly passing without touching, turning a light face or a dark as they travel through their personal space, their orbits influenced by love, jealousy, ambition, greed, insecurity, fear, revenge, longing, frustration, friendship and its loss—and the soul-wrenching effects of being responsible for other people.

  “And at the center of it all is a tenderly human compassion that sheds its light through this system of moving bodies, for everyone from the King of Scotland to Sergeant Dodd’s horse.

  “I finished reading the book, and immediately read it again. Been a long time since that’s happened.”

  A Sir Robert Carey Mystery

  P.F. Chisholm

  Poisoned Pen Press

  Contents

  A Suspicion of Silver

  Dedication

  Glossary

  November 1571, London

  Thursday, 4th January 1593

  Tuesday, 2nd January 1593, Leith

  Wednesday, 3rd January 1593

  Thursday, 4th January 1593, Derwentwater

  Friday, 5th January 1593, Edinburgh

  Thursday, 4th January 1593, Derwentwater

  Sunday, 7th January 1593

  Thursday, 4th January 1593, Stobbs

  Thursday, 4th January 1593, Derwentwater

  Monday, 8th January 1593, Edinburgh

  Thursday, 4th January 1593, Stobbs

  Monday, 8th January 1593, Edinburgh

  Friday, 5th January 1593, Stobbs

  Monday, 8th January 1593, Edinburgh

  Friday, 5th January 1593, Derwentwater

  Friday, 5th January 1593, Keswick

  Monday, 8th January 1593, Edinburgh

  Tuesday, 9th January 1593, Edinburgh

  Saturday, 6th January 1593, Keswick

  Tuesday, 9th January 1593, Edinburgh

  Tuesday, 9th January 1593, Edinburgh

  Wednesday, 10th January 1593

  Thursday, 11th January 1593

  Thursday, 11th January 1593, Stobbs

  Thursday, 11th January 1593, Derwentwater

  Thursday, 11th January 1593, Thirlwall Castle

  Friday, 12th January 1593, Gilsland

  Sunday, 14th January 1593, Stobbs

  Monday, 15th January 1593, Stobbs

  Monday, 15th January 1593, Carlisle

  Tuesday, 16th January 1593, Stobbs

  Wednesday, 17th January 1593, Gilsland

  Thursday, 18th January 1593

  Monday, 22nd January 1593, Keswick

  Wednesday, 24th January 1593, Keswick

  Tuesday, 23rd January 1593, Stobbs

  Thursday, 25th January 1593, Keswick

  Friday, 26th January 1593, Keswick

  Saturday, 27th January 1593, Stobbs

  Sunday, 28th January 1593, Keswick

  Sunday, 28th January 1593, Keswick

  Monday, 29th January 1593, Keswick

  Thursday, 1st February 1593, Carlisle

  Saturday, 3rd February 1593, Keswick

  Sunday, 4th February 1593, Keswick

  Sunday, 4th February 1593, Keswick

  Tuesday, 6th February 1593, Keswick

  Friday, 9th February 1593, Carlisle

  Saturday, 10th February 1593, Gilsland

  Saturday, 3rd March 1593

  Sunday, 4th March 1593, Carlisle

  Cast of Characters

  Author’s Note

  Acknowledgments

  More from this Author

  Contact Patricia Finney

  Contact Us

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2018 by P.F. Chisholm

  First Edition 2018

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018940951

  ISBN: 9781464210433 Hardcover

  ISBN: 9781464210457 Trade Paperback

  ISBN: 9781464210464 Ebook

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a re
trieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

  Poisoned Pen Press

  4014 N. Goldwater Blvd., #201

  Scottsdale, AZ 85251

  www.poisonedpenpress.com

  [email protected]

  Printed in the United States of America

  Dedication

  To the Andrassiék—Péter, Erzsi, Petra and Bálint,

  not forgetting Balázs, Gréta, and Áron.

  Many many thanks!

  Glossary

  “at the horn”—outlawed

  “out on the trod”—out in pursuit of reivers

  ague—malaria; quartan ague—four-day cycling malaria

  Allemaynes, Deutsch, Dutch—Germans

  Anabaptist—a type of German Protestant who believed in adult baptism among other revolutionary things; the Catholic Church did its level best to wipe them out.

  aquavitae—brandy

  arming doublet—the old doublet you wore under your armour or jack

  arquebus—large and heavy hand gun, with a long barrel which you usually needed a tripod to hold up

  Ars Mathematika—the art of mathematics

  assaying—testing an ore to find out what was in it

  bag pudding—steamed savoury pudding, often made with suet

  baldric—the shoulder strap for a long sword

  belladonna—a poison

  blacklead/plumbago/waad—graphite