Tom Walsingham is an impoverished cousin of Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's spymaster. His job is a courier, travelling between France and England with diplomatic messages. Charged with escorting a glovemaker to Paris, Walsingham and his companions are beset by a difficult journey in which the glover is murdered. Desperate to get back to London to tall Walsingham of a plot he feels he has uncovered, Tom is thwarted at every turn.
This is a promising start to a series, the character of Tom Walsingham is a real life one but his adventures are complete fiction. The events are straightforward but the plot is a little confusing and complex, however it is believable in the context. The sense of time and place is nicely imagined and the whole is an undemanding but enjoyable read. ( )