SCORPIONS' NEST

Playwright and spy Christopher Marlowe is sent to France to locate a convicted traitor to the English crown in this Elizabethan mystery.   October, 1586. Known across London as a poet and playwright, Christopher ?Kit? Marlowe, is also at the service of Sir Francis Walsingham, the queen?s spymaster. Now Walsingham has dispatched Kit to the English College in Rheims, France, where he suspects the Catholic traitor Matthew Baxter is hiding.   Infiltrating the college undercover, Marlowe learns that the community has been rocked by a series of unexplained and violent deaths. Now, with the help of master codebreaker Thomas Phelippes, Marlowe must unearth a murderer, track down a traitor, and extract himself from the scorpions? nest in time to return to London and save his play from a remorseless plagiarizer.   ?Kit has charm, and the English College full of exiled priests makes for an interesting setting.? ?Kirkus Reviews