Sarah Broadhurst's view...
1605 London, a nest of spies, conspirators, terrorism and passion for this is the history behind the gunpowder plot of November 5th. It brilliantly mixes real historical figures with fictional creations, romance and suspense with fact and so produces a slice of history brought vividly to life. It’s a love story, a conspiracy novel, an adventure and a human drama and it’s quite lovely. An impressive historical novel, highly satisfying.
Similar this month: Melanie Gifford.
Comparison: Philippa Gregory, Tracy Chevalier, Emma Donoghue.
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Synopsis
The Firemaster's Mistress by Christie Dickason
Francis Quoynt, Firemaster, is recently returned from Flanders and dreaming of making fireworks rather than war.
Instead, Quoynt is recruited by Robert Cecil, First Minister, to spy on Guido Fawkes and his fellow conspirators. Meanwhile, Sir Francis Bacon is scheming for high position and spying on Quoynt.
Kate Peach, a glove maker, was Quoynt's lover before war took him away. Now living in Southwark, she is brought into grave danger. She is a secret Catholic. A fugitive Jesuit is concealed in her rooms. While Francis hopes to prevent the death of King James I and everyone in his parliament, Kate will have to save herself …
Reviews
‘A rich mix of romance, suspense, adventure and lightly-worn knowledge. Gunpowder, treason and plot have never been so entertaining.’ - Kate Saunders, The Times
‘Atmospheric and impressively researched, it is highly entertaining.’ - Elizabeth Buchan, The Sunday Times
A tour de force on many levels. Primarily a love story set against the backdrop of 17th-century terrorism, this relates a tragedy that puts you on the rack in its literary quest for truth about November 5.’ - Oxford Times
About the Author
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Christie Dickason was born in the USA in the state of Indiana, but grew up in homes all over the world, including Mexico, Thailand (where she received formal dance instruction with a princess in the royal court of Bangkok), and Switzerland.
Though she has written since the age of five, she began to take it seriously when she found herself seriously ill in hospital. In the following nine months of convalescence, she wrote her first, but unacknowledged, novel, which is composting quietly somewhere in a file drawer but led to a commission for the first published novel.
Her first two novels were political thrillers centred on a strong French-Vietnamese heroine. The Dragon Riders (published in the US as Indochine) explored the explosive early days of the French-controlled drug trade in Indochina in the 1920s and the deadly shift from legitimate business to Mafia Rule. The Tears of the Tiger, her second book, involved the search for missing American POWs and the dangerous love affairs of the heroine with a Vietnamese war lord and his rival, an American undercover agent. Both books were international bestsellers.
Now settled in East Sheen, London, Christie travels in her latest novel The Firemaster’s Mistress back to 1605 to look at an unknown side of conspiracy, treason and romance. The novel is a romantic historical thriller, which explores and challenges our image of the infamous Gunpowder Plot.
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