Scorpions Nest by MJ Trow

Another of the excellent series of historical thrillers featuring the playwright Christopher Marlowe in his guise of agent for Sir Francis Walsingham.

Marlowe is despatched to Rheims where the Catholic Church has founded the English College as a seminary for exiled English priests.   Walsingham suspects that this is where Mathew Baxter, the only surviving member of the Babington plot, may be found.   Using the name Robert Greene, his rival at Cambridge, Marlowe infiltrates the College but finds himself faced by a series of murders that have taken place there.   In order to discover the whereabouts of Baxter Marlowe finds himself investigating the murders.   He is assisted by Solomon Aldred, a Walsingham agent masquerading as a wine merchant, who has been established in the town and supplies the College which enables him to gain contact with Dr Allen the Principal and Dr Skelton his deputy.   Walsingham also sends Thomas Phellipes, his code breaker, accompanied by Professor Michael Johns, late of Corpus Christi, and a former tutor of Marlowe.   With no one at the College appearing in their true identity and the body count rising Marlowe finds himself indeed in a "Nest of Scorpions".

These Marlowe stories are Trow's best since the outstanding Lestrade series.   Hopefully more to come.