Not all threats and intrigue comes from England, and it is the international connections that can prove the most dangerous.

The race is then on to prevent the assassination of the King at the predicted time, and to flush out any further dangers facing the throne. The second half of the book is where John Gower finds out just how many secrets have been withheld from him, and where he gets sucked deeper into the politics and manoeuvring of King Richard’s court. Meanwhile, Gower has been tasked by his friend Geoffrey Chaucer to find the book, appreciating what a book predicting how the current King is going to die is a dangerous book in itself. The book can be split into two parts: the first part with the book in question falling into the hands of Agnes and Millicent – who cant read it, but know enough to realise the danger it presents but not having the leverage to get rid of it, with Edgar having the likely contacts, but needing to get his hands on the book itself. Told in multiple voices, including that of John Gower the prostitute sisters Millicent and Agnes and Agnes’ sometime co-worker Edgar, who has secrets and concerns of his own. Bruce’s website for the book can be found over here. Because its words are behind the highest treason – a conspiracy to kill the king and reduce his reign to ashes…Īn uncorrected proof sent to me by the lovely people at Harper Collins. It should be easy for a man of Gower’s talents, who knows the back-alleys of Southwark as intimately as the courts and palaces of Westminster.īut what Gower does not know is that this book has already caused one murder, and that its contents could destroy his life. The request is simple: track down a missing book. When close confidant, fellow poet Geoffrey Chaucer, calls in an old debt, Gower cannot refuse. A place of poetry and prophecy, where power is bought by blood.įor John Gower, part-time poet and full-time trader in information, secrets are his currency. A city of shadows and fear, in a kingdom ruled by the headstrong young King Richard II, haunted by the spectre of revolt.

A burnable book by bruce holsinger