S.J. Parris: Treachery (December 2023)

Treachery is set in 1585. Drake’s fleet is about to embark from Plymouth on a, hopefully, decisive expedition against King Philip of Spain when a murder is committed on the flagship and staged to look like suicide. The ship is securely guarded as Philip has put a bounty of 20,000 ducats on Drake’s head, £4,000,000 in today’s money, so the perpetrator has to have been a member of the crew, either for their own reasons or because they are in the pay of an enemy of Robert Dunne, the victim.
Fear and superstition spreads through the fleet and the mission is in jeopardy, so Drake asks Giordano Bruno and his friend Sir Philip Sidney to help solve the mystery.
Robert Dunne was an inveterate gambler, heavily in debt, but as he would have earned a share of the proceeds of plundering the Spanish ships, his creditors had nothing to gain from killing him before the voyage.
Likewise, his widow stands to lose everything if it is decided that he has committed suicide as that was a criminal offence and all their money and property therefore forfeit. In these times a wife’s money belongs to her husband and she has watched him squander her inheritance. Whilst she may have wanted him dead, why make it look like suicide?
There are many strands to this novel and she paints a fascinating picture of life in Elizabethan Plymouth, full of details about clothes, food, buildings, the contrast between the lives of rich and poor and the squalor and filth all around.
We liked the character of Bruno, a scholarly outsider ahead of his time in terms of his scientific knowledge, with a dry wit and a clear eye.
Some of us found that the novel was a bit long, tending to drag a little, but others disagreed, enjoying all the descriptions and the exciting twists and turns.
4/5

(For a full list of book reviews from the Literature group please see this page.)

After we discussed the book we had a festive glass of wine and shared some poetry. One of the group kindly wrote us a poem:

Another Christmas

Another Christmas!
Another Year!
They pass so quickly now.
I don’t know how.
Where did it go?
What did I do?
Cook, Shop, Clean and Wash
Nothing to show at the end.
Turn around and it all needs doing again.
Thank goodness for Books
to entertain and expand our minds
Also like-minded friends
to share our pleasures
and favourite books.
Real treasures!
So, friends, books
and conversations
go on forever!
So don’t think of giving up reading.
Never Never Never!