NEW COVER to celebrate the Bronze Medal win for Best Historical Fiction of 2018!For fans of Ken Follett's Kingsbridge series and "A Column of Fire," return to 17th-century England in this 5-star reviewed alternate historical fiction novel.History shows Kit Marlowe died in a tavern brawl in Deptford in 1593, but did he?England is torn apart by religious metamorphosis and espionage. The stages of England and bright intellectual boys are used to bolster Queen Elizabeth I's reign and to propagate the rising Protestant faith. At the age of eight, Christopher Marlowe, the muse's darling, is sucked into the labyrinth of secret spy rings, blood, murder, and betrayal, while his own ambition to become England's favorite playwright drifts further from his grasp.As Christopher grows to manhood, he sinks further into the darkness and a chance meeting with an unknown actor from Stratford-upon-Avon, William Shakespeare, sets him on a path of destiny - a fate of forced exile and the revelation that the real enemy is not an assassin of Rome, but a man who stared into his eyes and smiled.One he did not expect...Steve Donoghue of the Historical Novel Society Review says: "Marley has sifted through a phenomenal amount of research, but along the way she hasn't forgotten to tell a first-rate and gripping story, adorned in many places by some very pretty turns of phrase. We may never have a final resolution to the tangled questions Marley raises, but as long as we get such strong and enjoyable novels as this one out of the tangle, we shouldn't complain."Read the entire review at https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/blood-and-ink/
