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ktoumajian's review
3.0
This was not my favorite of Finney’s Elizabethan series featuring David Beckett and Simon Ames but as always I did enjoy being swept up in her imagined version of the Spanish Armada invasion of England that almost was. This time the main characters are far apart from one another, but both working on behalf of the Queen to understand and thwart the Spanish plans, taking them to Lisbon, Antwerp, Calais and the oar deck of a Spanish warship. It’s Finney’s attention to detail (so glad the life of a galley-slave was not mine) and colorful characters—-two new characters that emerge from the West African slave trade were my two favorites—-that keep me coming back to her writing.
caroparr's review
4.0
This is the kind of thing I could eat up with a spoon: complicated history, vivid characters, tragedy and comedy, and a touch of fantasy, too. Finney presents the same incidents from different points of view which rather than being repetitive is actually illuminating, given that we have spies on all sides and a number of mysterious characters. There's lots of plot to chew on and more than one reversal of fortune. Having read all three books in this series, I can see why Dunnett readers have recommended them. I save five-star reviews for books that changed my life, but this one deserves at least a 4.5.
bookhookgeek's review
Another one that I couldn't get into, so I might as well just return it to the library.
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