LONDON 1662
For some, the early years of the Restoration are giddy, glorious ones. For others, like Thomas Chaloner, they are uncertain, murky and dangerous.
Thomas has just returned from ten years abroad in the employ of the Commonwealth, and is now seeking to work for his king. He manages to find a position with the Earl of Clarendon, and is sent to investigate the rumour that there is a cache of gold buried in the Tower of London. But he is quickly seduced by other, more deadly, secrets and discovers that his predecessor in Clarendon's employ was murdered ...
Against a backdrop of the shadows of Puritanism and of the sunlit decadence of a gaudy court, Susanna Gregory has woven a compelling tale of the baggage of betrayal, the weight of secrets and the pit of vipers that eternally infest the corridors of power.