Incendium ... fire and death in the name of piety ...

I love historical mystery fiction - especially when featuring some ell known players such as Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and favourite of Queen Elizabeth I of England.

As in reality, there is a plot against the Queen following what was known as the Ridolfi Plot (1571). There were plots on both sides of the English Channel as Paris prepares for the wedding of Henry of Navarre and Marguerite de Valois (which in itself is just a prelude to the St Bartholomew Day's massacre).

Dr Christopher Radcliffe, lawyer and spy for Leicester, is given the task to investigate and root out treason and its culprits wherever they may be. But the word "incendium" whispers of a new plot against the Queen.

Swanston gives us a real feel for Elizabeth London, the "viper's nest", where there are more real life treasonable plots than you could poke a stick at. And just when you think all is resolved, you find yourself only halfway through. Very clever writing.

I enjoyed Christopher a lot. He is a fun character, witty but very serious when it comes to his job. He is building a lot on intuition though which is not always explained. This makes it hard to puzzle along.
This book is filled with names. It is always the thing with books in that time period and I did mix up a few characters at some point making the story confusing as one was on the good side and the other on the bad. The time line is a bit confusing too. A question is asked and whole months pass in time before an answer is given but it is the next chapter in the book and not always made clear how much time has actually passed. It made me wonder what people were doing during those months and did disturb the reading process as I first had to find out how much further in the year we were.
I did not stop reading though despite quite a few frustrations I had with this book. There is something in this story that made me want to get to the end. It is easy to cheer for Christopher and I just had to know if he would manage to solve the mystery.

Christopher Radcliffe serves the Earl of Leicester in this Elizabethan historical mystery. Queen Elizabeth has her cousin, Mary Queen of Scots, locked up in the Tower and enemies from France and Spain are threatening her Protestant people. With religious tensions reaching their height, friends of Radcliffe's disappear, and then he is summoned by the Earl of Leicester to investigate a possible plot against the Queen.

Radcliffe has his share of personal issues with his lady love refusing to marry him and more than a passing attraction to one of his intelligencers, a Cheapside whore. But the most troubling relationship is his connection to the Earl and a smiling usurper intent on taking his place at the right hand of one of the most powerful men in England.

This is a sensational read. It's fast-paced and surprising, with engaging characters and descriptions that put you right in the middle of a potently drawn Elizabethan London. It's rich and engrossing and I am looking forward to reading more about Christopher Radcliffe's adventures.

In London 1572, lawyer Dr Christopher Radcliff is given the task by the Earl of Leicester to find out about a plot to kill Queen Elizabeth and restore the Catholic Queen Mary.
We follow Christopher from London to Paris and back again as he chases down fragments of a plot - the only thing of which he is sure of is that it is named Incendium. The Queen and the Earl are unforgiving and so Christopher knows he must succeed, not just to save the Queen, but to also save himself and those close to him from the Tower.
During Elizabethan England, violence was commonplace and this book has a few squirmish scenes, but nothing too graphic. We do get a great sense of the time period though and what we can imagine were the sights and smells of 16th Century life in a big city. The plot was well paced and the characters developed well. I would recommend this to fans of Historical Fiction who also like a bit of mystery/suspense.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review

Struggled a little to get into this book, though it's vividly imagined and the plot - once it gets going - is really quite exciting.

London in the mid 1570s and rumour abounds of plots against the Queen with both Catholic nations at their centre. When one of his informants disappeared Radcliff is concerned but his paymaster, the Earl of Leicester, has other plans for him. Radcliff is sent to France to liaise with Sir Francis Walsingham and find out what he can against about a plot named Incendium which will destroy Elizabeth and put her cousin Mary (Queen of Scots) on the throne. In Paris Radcliff is caught up in the St Bartholomew's Day Massacre and this affects him deeply. Returning to London he finds that his two lines of enquiry are connected and also that there is a traitor in his circle.

This is the first in a proposed series of books about an Elizabethan intelligence agent, Radcliff, from a writer with a strong track record in writing historical fiction. I did like the fact that the reader is introduced to Radcliff with little backstory and only snippets are given. We are told that Radcliff is afraid of prisons within the first few pages and that he used to be a Cambridge lecturer, later we learn that he spent time in prison and later still we are told the nature of the crime and how he ended up in London. However there is no great detail and this allows Swanston the luxury of being able to explore that in later books. The plot is suitably complex, the sense of time and place excellent with the scenes set in Paris and Amiens particularly well-researched and touching. I look forward to reading the next chapter.

AD Swanson knows his Elizabethan history as he illustrates in this piece of historical fiction of 1572, the first in the Dr Christopher Radcliff, set in stinking, poverty ridden, London, although there is a harrowing picture of Paris, with its out of control terror, butchery and massacre of Huguenots. Radcliff is a Law Professor, no longer able to work in Cambridge and now is Robert Dudley's (Earl of Leicester) chief spy and intelligence gatherer of plots and conspiracies aimed at removing Elizabeth, replacing her with Mary, Queen of Scots and restoring Catholicism as the faith of England. We see how close to Elizabeth the conspirators are, as the book opens with the execution of her cousin, the Duke of Norfolk. There is a febrile atmosphere as paranoia reigns supreme, with the threat of a Spanish invasion on the horizon and England is ill equipped to defend itself. Radcliff has agents in the city, who can go where he cannot, in his efforts to keep one step ahead of the plotters. Two of his friends and agents, Nicholas and Sarah Houseman are murdered because of their awareness of the mysterious term, Incendium. Their bodies are removed from their home and all their valuables taken.

Radcliff is disturbed by the disappearance of the Housemans, refusing to accept that they have left London. However, it is difficult to get to the bottom of the mystery, and his patron, Leicester is not minded to view this as important, he has far more important matters to deal with, as he talks of a nest of vipers, the wild rumours that abound and a Queen that is struggling to come to terms with the treachery she has faced from her close family circles. Leicester, at the instigation of the Queen, has acquired a young, new and ambition man, John Berwick, who makes Radcliff uncomfortable and ill at ease as he surmises that Berwick means to usurp his strong position with Leicester. Against his better judgement, Radcliff goes to Paris, only to witness the city tip over into a nightmare as thousands of Protestants are slain after the killing of the Huguenot leader, Admiral Coligny. Radcliff understands that behind these events are powerful forces whose ultimate aim is to destabilise London and assassinate Elizabeth. Radcliff faces setback after setback as his judgement is questioned and he is confined to his house. However, he is not a man to give up as he finds himself in danger and caught up in a desperate fight to ensure that Elizabeth is safe.

Swanston has written a historical thriller that captures the atmosphere of a London reeling under the threats that threaten the rule of Queen Elizabeth 1, with real figures from the period such as Sir Francis Walsingham, the Earl of Leicester, and the Duke of Norfolk prominent in the narrative. The author depicts a insightful picture of the state of affairs at Whitehall Palace, with all its intrigue and deception, and Leicester is not immune to feelings of fear and insecurity which he takes out on Radcliff. Executions are viewed as must see forms of public entertainment and there is the horrifyingly popular practice of bear baiting. This is an entertaining and suspenseful read, although I felt the character of Radcliff needs more development to make him feel like a more authentic character. Nevertheless, this a compelling novel that I particularly recommend to those interested in Elizabethan history. Many thanks to Random House Transworld for an ARC.

Medieval London. Elizabeth on the throne, Mary Queen of Scots incarcerated in Sheffield. Unrest and bloodiest revolt in France, a plot to assassinate Elizabeth.p and conquer England. Dr Christopher Radcliffe, a lawyer in the employ of Lord Leicester is tasked with uncovering the plot and find the traitors with the help of his “intelligencers” from various walks of life.
A very impressive read, evoking the cruel life and scenes of medieval England and France. Constant fear of one’s life, shifting allegiances, the grime and clamour of filthy streets. Spies and murderers, petty thieves and corrupt practices.
The only niggly point for me was that the constant recaps started to annoy me: It was as if the author thought the reader too dumb to follow the (not too complicated) plot. Otherwise 5 stars.

I am notoriously picky when it comes to historical fiction. One of the problems of having studied history is that I both love reading historical fiction and yet also find it incredibly easy to be thrown out of enjoying the story just because of a simple inaccuracy. This is even more applicable when it comes to anything to do with Elizabethan England, aka one of my main specialisms. So A.D.Swanston had a series of significant obstacles to get over for me to even stand a chance of enjoying this book. He more than delivered. There were plenty of nice call-backs to specific historical incidents, with a significant portion of the book being structured around the massacre of Huguenots in Paris. Fairly simple yet comprehensive explanations were provided for those who were less familiar with the period, but these didn't bog the story down in detail.

Onto the story! Appropriately for the period, the story follows the adventures of Christopher Radcliff, head of the Earl of Leicester's intelligence network, as he investigates a Catholic plot. It's the right balance between Christopher trying to solve the mystery with high octane sections of action and Christopher running his intelligence network. So much of his job necessitates talking to people and considering what would most appeal to them to encourage them to divulge information, and I for one enjoyed the Elizabethan Le Carre feel of these sections. Christopher is an engaging character and I'm still intrigued to hear more about his backstory of his life in Cambridge. Plenty of interesting side characters too. I will most definitely be reading the next installment in this series.

3.5* rounded up because I want to see more from this series.

Incendium is a historical spy fiction set during the reign of Elisabeth I. Christopher Radcliff, a former law professor is employed by Earl of Leicester, a close adviser to the Queen, as chief intelligencer. His job is to keep the Earl informed regarding potentials plots against the Crown. Dr. Radcliff engages the help of a series of interesting agents who listen around and report if they hear any interesting whispers.

The novel begins with the brutal murder of one of the lawyer’s agents and his wife. In the same time, Dr. Radcliff is sent to France by the Earl in order to receive an important message from the English ambassador in Paris, just in time to assist to one of the most horrible mass murders in History, the Massacre of St. Bartholomew Day. The two events slowly, slowly come together and a new plot to kill the Queen has to be discovered and crushed.

The historical information was well presented and engaging, I could immediately see that the author is a historian who knows this period well. I was encouraged by what I read to study more about the historical characters and events. Even though the outcome of the plot is obvious if you know a bit of history, the story still managed to keep me interested and tension was well built.
I have two minor complains. At the beginning I found that it was difficult to keep my attention on what I was reading. I don’t know if it was my fault or the writing, but the situation resolved itself shortly. Secondly, the characters could have been better drawn and more interesting. My favorite was the prostitute spy because she was funny, spiritual and smart. The others did not differentiate so well. The Earl was extremely irritating as all the meetings between him and Christopher were more or less about the same thing: Him requesting and threatening his protegee to find a solution fast or else. After hearing the same conversation over and over and over again I was bored and annoyed with the author for making the character so one-dimensional. There is also a love story which felt a bit flat and I would have like to see more passion between the 2.

All in all, an interesting and well written historical mystery novel, in the style of C.J. Sansom.
Thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK, Transworld Publishers for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.