Sir Anthony Standen Adventures

Penniless and a disappointment to his father, Anthony is flung into the Eighty Years' War, spying for the queen who exiled him, against the queen who knighted him.

Priests are being burnt in their churches. Pope Paul hires two old enemies to track down the killer. Their journey leads them to Galileo and his students, but finding the killer leads them to another. They can't deal with this one, but perhaps Anthony's teenage children can.

How could Anthony and Maria possibly have known that taking the new French ambassador and his wife to his posting in Tunis, aboard their new yacht, would lead to this. But here they were, and the man responsible was sitting only a few yards away. They would have to deal with him, but it might have to wait.

It is 1612. Maria and Antonio set off to the Frankfurt fair to find a buyer for their wine, and expand their vineyard. They find a buyer, and Maria finds an admirer. When they visit the man preparing their bill of exchange, he and his wife have been strangled.