What We're Reading: Edward

Revenger: a novel of Tudor intrigue


by Rory Clements


John Shakespeare, William's brother, is trying to live quietly as a school master. His wife, a Catholic, is almost caught meeting with a banned priest. John and his family are being closely watched by pursuivants. Five years ago John worked as an intelligencer for Lord Burghley. Now Burghley's son, Sir Robert Cecil, puts John to work on two tasks. He is to find a survivor of Sir Walter Raleigh's lost colony. Raleigh is in the Tower of London and hopes to regain the favor of Queen Elizabeth. This would diminish the power of the current favorite, the Earl of Essex. John is also to spy from inside the Essex household for Cecil. John slowly learns of a plot on the life of Queen Elizabeth. Will he be able to stop the plot without losing his life?

What We're Reading: Edward

Ashes of the Earth: a mystery of the post-apocalyptic America

by Eliot Pattison

Twenty-five years after the world experiences a series of atomic and biological attacks, people are beginning to gather in communities for their survival. One of these communities, near the Great Lakes, is Carthage. Hadrian Boone was one of the founders of the community. But now he is on the outs with the current leadership. When the leading scientist of the community is killed, the violent underside of the community is revealed. Boone is given the task of finding out what is happening to Carthage. Neighboring communities want to change Carthage. Boone had hoped that the devastation of the Earth would change mankind. But evil and violence still seem to be a part of the human condition. Will it ever change? Start of a new series for Pattison.

What We're Reading: Edward

The Road to Rome: a forgotten legion chronicle

by Ben Kane

In this the third book in the Forgotten Legion series, twins Fabiola and Romulus are fated to find each other in Rome after many years apart. Fabiola is now an intimate favorite of both Brutus and Mark Anthony. She lives to seek vengeance on Julius Caesar for the past treatment of her family. Romulus was a slave serving in the lost Roman Legion in the East. Caesar spares Romulus the death penalty for this crime. Thus earning his loyalty. Tarquinius, a fellow legionnaire, tell Romulus of his vision of an auspicious death. As the Ides of March approaches, Fabiola and Romulus will meet again. Who will survive their meeting on the Ides of March?