This Marlowe

1593. Queen Elizabeth reigns while two rival spymasters Sir Robert Cecil and the Earl of Essex plot from the shadows to control succession upon the aged queen's death. The man on whom their schemes depend is Kit Marlowe, a cobbler's son from Canterbury who has defied expectations and become an accomplished poet and playwright, with a fierce reputation. When plague closes the theatres, Kit must return to the work for which he was originally recruited: intelligence and espionage. Fighting to stay one step ahead in a dizzying game that threatens those he loves, Kit begins to question his allegiances and nearly everything he once believed. Tensions mount and accusations of heresy and treason fly until he must choose between paths that lead either to love, honour, and loss or to guilt and death. In this novel of passion and intrigue, Michelle Butler Hallett measures the weight of the body politic, the torment of the flesh, and the state of the soul. - 20160302"