Books 2014 - The Heresy of Doctor Dee by Phil Rickman

[byslantedlight]

All talk is of the end-time... and the dead are rising. At the end of the sunless summer of 1560, black rumour shrouds the death of the one woman who stands between Lord Robert Dudley and marriage to the young Queen Elizabeth. Did Dudley's wife, Amy, die from an accidental fall, or was it a calculated murder? Even Dr John Dee, astrologer and consultant to Queen Elizabeth and one of Dudley's oldest friends, is uncertain. Then a rash promise to the Queen sends him to his family's old home on the Welsh border in pursuit of the Wigmore Shewstone, a crystal credited with supernatural properties...

I was so happy to find this in the independent bookshop in Taunton (when I'd not seen it anywhere else yet), and equally as happy to read it... *g* Not only does it fit the Readers Imbibing Peril (finally, I've got the title right, I kept muffing it...) reading challenge perfectly, but it centres around my favourite character, Robert Dudley.

Actually the last words of the blurb sum it up very well:Devious politics, small-town corruption, twisted religion and brooding superstition leave John Dee isolated in the land of his father... Which of those things are really more terrifying? Dee isn't sure either, and despite being a somewhat naive character, he sees threats from them all, and is sure of none. There is a haunted tump (barrow), an idiot-boy who can find water and bones and all manner of things, just by knowing what someone wants him to find, and the threat of death and curses over everyone, when a vagabond who has taken for himself the name of an ancient Welsh hero, is finally captured. His curse is upon Dudley - and then Dudley disappears...

This is another book where the supernatural and reality crash and clash - which is worse, what people fear of the idiot-boy, or how he came to be in the first place? Is one rooted in the other? And is the very worst thing to be alone, not knowing who you can trust when the stench of a deathpit is all around...?

(Four books, any length, that you feel fit (the very broad definitions) of R.I.P. literature.)
Lord John and the Hand of Devils by Diana Gabaldon
The Bones of Avalon by Phil Rickman
The Magpie Lord by K.J. Charles
The Heresy of Doctor Dee by Phil Rickman

Ha - and that's my four books, even before the end of September... *g* What shall I do next..? Just kidding, I have every intention of Imbibing Peril until midnight strikes on Halloween... *g*

Comments

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

A couple of recommendations for peril of various kinds:
Shadow of Darkness (and sequels) by Deborah Harkness - starts off with witches and vampires in modern Oxford and moves, eventually, to Elizabethan London and modern New England.
Company of Liars and/or The Owl Killers by Karen Maitland - both set in mediaeval England and both with a slight paranormal twist that can be ignored. I preferred Company of Liars.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Recommendations always welcome - thank you!

[gilda-elise.livejournal.com]

Now you really have me impatiently waiting for the two books, found on Amazon for a song.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

*vbg*

[caffyolay.livejournal.com]

This is the sequel to The Bones of Avalon, right? It sounds good. I'm off on my hols on with my Kindle next week so I may start that while I'm away. Well done on your four books! I'm there too but will keep reading.