Blood Rock Jackson, James

1588. In Lisbon the great Spanish Armada prepares to set sail for England. Along the coast of the Low Countries, the army of the Duke of Parma readies itself for embarkation. Threat is imminent. Yet behind it is a darker and more secretive game, one of espionage and murder, of treachery and deceit. The stiletto-blade to the back, the poison in the chalice, the tortuerer's rack in the dungeon. This is the realm of the spy. And at its heart is the legendary Elizabethan spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham. One-by-one his intelligence sources vanish, day-by-day the danger to his queen and country grows. Finally, he sends the young soldier and agent Christian Hardy to discover the truth. But to reach it, Hardy must confront the deadliest of foes, the Spanish Inquisition, turncoats among his own, and the might of the enemy fleet. Time is running out. For Hardy, for England, for its sovereign queen Elizabeth...

'Remember, Remember, the Fifth of November...' For fans of Conn Iggulden and Bernard Cornwell, this pulse-racing and dramatic new thriller from Sunday Times bestselling author James Jackson sheds new light on one of the most dramatic events in British history. Behind the famous rhyme lies a murderous conspiracy that goes far beyond Guy Fawkes and his ill-fated Gunpowder Plot . . . In a desperate race against time, spy Christian Hardy must uncover a web of deceit that runs from the cock-fighting pits of Shoe Lane, to the tunnels beneath a bear-baiting arena in Southwark, and from the bad lands of Clerkenwell to a brutal firefight in The Globe theatre. But of the forces ranged against Hardy, all pale beside the renegade Spanish agent codenamed Realm.

1608. Up the remote James River in the land the English named Virginia, lies a small wooden palisaded fort. This first outpost of the new colony is besieged by natives, beset by danger and sabotaged from within. Intelligencer Christian Hardy is there to protect the new possession on behalf of young Prince Henry, heir to the English throne. Ranged against him are the forces of King James I and his spymaster Robert Cecil, who will sacrifice all to prevent war with Spain. And there, too, is his old adversary Realm, who will stop at nothing to wreak vengeance on Hardy. Amid starvation and bloodshed a desperate fight for survival begins.