Hot Book of the Week – P.F. Chisholm’s A Suspicion of Silver

A book from Poisoned Pen Press, P.F. Chisholm’s A Suspicion of Silver, is the current Hot Book of the Week. You can order a signed copy, or other books in the Sir Robert Carey series, through the Web Store. https://bit.ly/2EoAMrP

Author Dana Stabenow says readers of A Suspicion of Silver are “In for a real treat”.  Here are Stabenow’s comments from her website. https://stabenow.com/2018/12/10/24496/

“A wrong-side-of-the-blanket cousin of Queen Elizabeth I, perspicaciously able, perennially broke, persistently in love with the married Lady Elizabeth Widdrington, Sir Robert is fresh off saving James the VI/I’s life from a double assassination attempt. With the whole-hearted if covert backing of Sir Robert Cecil he is now tasked by James to catch and kill the would-be assassin, a thoroughly creepy serial killer, and along the way if he can figure out how the the German silver miners in Keswick are stiffing the queen out of her share of the take, so much the better. It doesn’t help matters that his surly Sergeant, Henry Dodd, is missing and presumed dead.

“Chisholm displays a masterful hand in drawing several plot lines from the previous novels to a resoundingly satisfying conclusion, and in setting a terrific hook on the last page. Mickey Spillane, who famously said “The last line sells the next book,” would have given her a standing ovation for this one. I have never loved Sir Robert more.”

*****

Here’s part of a 5 Star review on Net Galley.

“In the previous episode in this excellent historical series, Sir Robert Carey had just foiled a heinous plot to kill King James of Scotland. Now he is in pursuit of the perpetrator who managed to escape over the border. It’s possible he has gone to ground in his home turf, a copper mine run by his family in England … This series gets better with each book and this is the best one so far, although it is definitely advisable to read them in order. Chisholm is so good at depicting the feel of a time and place and the historical details feel spot on, even when describing the operation of a 16th century copper mine and smelter.”

*****

And, here’s what it says about A Suspicion of Silver on the Web Site. 

Edinburgh, 1593. The new year begins. 

Sir Robert Carey has just foiled a double plot against King James. He rides for Leith hunting the would-be assassin now identified as Joachim Hochstetter, also known as Jonathan Hepburn. Has he taken ship for the Continent, or ridden nearly 130 miles south and west into England? There at Keswick, his family, originally from Augsburg, runs a mining operation that pays a royalty to Queen Elizabeth in gold. It’s ruled by the widow Radagunda Hochstetter, his mother. 

Sir Robert’s other problem? His dour, difficult, and now treasonous henchman, Sergeant Henry Dodd, has disappeared somewhere on the snowy moors. Why can’t anyone find Dodd’s body? 

Before going after Hochstetter, Carey must escort Dodd’s widow back to her home at Gilsland. It’s a complex operation involving a cart, Widow Ridley and Skinabake Armstrong. That’s the man who sold Janet Dodd to Wee Colin, the Elliot headman, on her way to Edinburgh before Dodd disappeared. 

If Hochstetter goes to ground in Keswick, how far will the colony of German miners go to protect Radagunda’s favourite child? He may be an outlaw in Scotland, and King James certainly wants his head, but Carey has no official authorization to kill the man in England. 

Predictably, the Hochstetter family is politely obstructive. But something else is going on. What in the name of everything unholy is that well-known reiver, Wattie Graham of Netherby, doing so far over the border in peaceful Keswick? 

Sir Robert is tested to the utmost in chasing the traitor (underground), solving a murder, arranging a duel – and then his courtship of another man’s wife takes a deadly turn.