My life in books

The Tudor Vendetta is the third and final (one assumes) volume in C. W. Gortner's Spymaster series, featuring Brendan Prescott, secretly the illegitimate son of Henry VIII's younger sister Margaret.

In previous volumes, Prescott has been in the service of William Cecil, working undercover to preserve the Tudor line of succession - first Mary, then Elizabeth. In The Tudor Vendetta, Prescott, forced to flee England for his own safety following his role in taking down the Courteney Plot, returns - in the company of his mentor Francis Walsingham - to take up his role as protector of Elizabeth, now queen of England. Though Mary, her sister, is dead, Elizabeth faces many challenges and dangers, not the least of which is the continued animosity of Catholics both at home and abroad.

It is Cecil's plan to keep Prescott close to Elizabeth, both as an intelligencer and protector, and to keep Elizabeth from going too far in her relationship with Robert Dudley, risking her crown and her life through indiscretion. Elizabeth, however, has other plans for Prescott.

An assassination attempt gives Prescott reason to suspect that a Spanish agent he believed to be dead is still alive and plotting against the new Queen, but Elizabeth fears that an even greater danger is marshalling against her, and sends Prescott to investigate.

An enjoyable tale, drawing on what most historians consider to be no more than gossip arising from the circumstances of Elizabeth's early relationship with her step-father Thomas Seymour (who married Henry VIII's widow Katherine Parr) - but again, there's just enough room in the gaps of history to make the plot a plausible one.

His mission accomplished, Prescott is finally free to settle down to a quiet life in the country with his lady love Kate - but I can't help but hope the Elizabeth will need him again.