Marbeck and the Gunpowder Plot

July 27, 2015
Set in London in 1605, Pilkington’s fourth mystery featuring intelligencer Martin Marbeck (after 2014’s Marbeck and the Privateers) sustains suspense throughout, even though most readers are likely to know the outcome of the real-life title conspiracy. While working undercover during a time when talk of rebellion against the crown appears to have more substance than usual, the spy hears rumors of a kidnapping plot targeting the children of James I. By chance Marbeck gathers more disturbing evidence that concerns the increased production of gunpowder. As he follows the trail, he finds himself in peril and unable to trust anyone, even his superiors. A plot to blow up the Parliament building when it resumes session on the fifth of November with the king inside is afoot, but Marbeck doesn’t reveal what’s really going on until the satisfying and twisty conclusion. Evocative period detail more than compensates for the weak romantic subplot involving a lost love of the lead.

September 1, 2015
As England hovers uneasily on the precipice of hostilities prompted by the ongoing religious and political rift between Protestants and Catholics, government intelligencer Martin Marbeck continues his shadowy work in service to King James I. During this dangerous period of civil unrest, Marbeck and the network of spies orchestrated by Lord Cecil are kept especially busy as conspiracies and intrigue run rampant. Assigned to keep tabs on dedicated papist Thomas Percy, cousin of the powerful Earl of Northumberland, Martin gets a whiff of a rumor that culminates in an explosive plot to assassinate the king and blow up the House of Lords. Racing against the clock to unravel the treasonous scheme, he alsoin typical Marbeck fashionbecomes entangled in some knotty relationship problems. Pilkington does a masterful job of meticulously grounding this novel in the actual historical events surrounding the infamous Gunpowder Plot.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)