The world of Elizabethan spiery is a crowded one – but, in Shadow of Poison, Peter Tonkin once again demonstrates why he stands head and shoulders above the crowd. Given his history of writing thrillers and Elizabethan fiction, Tonkin is a master of genre and era. His Tudor court seethes and sparks with personalities, flash and danger: it is a world of competition and plots, of rivalries and jealousies, and of elites and fascinating ruffians. This is, in short, the Elizabethan courtly world as it was.

Shadow of Poison takes place in the years following the (botched) execution of Mary Queen of Scots and the death (in the Anglo-Spanish war) of Sir Philip Sidney, and it is clear that Elizabeth I’s life is in as much danger as ever. Following the exploits of real-life spy Robert Poley, the novel traces and builds upon a number of real-life plots, including the Hesketh plot (which was followed by the mysterious death of the 5th Earl of Derby). But the great drama here – and a riveting one it is – is the strange affair of Roderigo Lopez, accused of attempting to assassinate the queen by her last favourite, the mercurial Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex.

Here, Tonkin shines: his Essex is a man on the rise, pitted against his rivals for power, the Cecils: ‘The Cecils,’ writes Tonkin, ‘were building their fortunes slowly and carefully, based on land, wood and wool.’ Essex, of course, felt his own power base derived from his high birth and the royal favour it, and his charisma, brought. Into this rivalry falls Lopez: but is he guilty or is he innocent? In the world of Elizabethan high politics, nothing is certain and no one is safe.

It is this world, with its heady brew of upper-crust power-plays and underground, low-ranking spying, which Tonkin writes as if he’d been an eyewitness to it. He captures as easily discussions about the siege of Rouen as he does tavern gossip about arriving messengers from Portuguese princes. This is crucial; Shadow serves as a salient reminder that our modern notions of gentlemen spies are just that – the early modern era was comprised of circles within circles, as low-ranking ruffians finagled their way into the service of the realm’s premier peers.

Those peers, too, abound: Tonkin serves up a glittering array of notables, from Essex to Bess of Hardwick, although they share the pages with less salubrious famous faces such as Thomas Phelippes and William Wade. Those familiar with Elizabeth’s reign will delight in seeing these personalities brought to life – and brought to life accurately and with passion. Shadow of Poison is thus a novel to be enjoyed by those who know the era well as well as newcomers: the cast and the plots will welcome both.

Steven Veerapen is a historian and the author of Of Judgement Fallen.