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| Author: |
Ann Tiffany |
| Dated: |
Saturday, August 25 2007 @ 02:15 PM EDT |
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2145 times |
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Imagine a story about a contemporary female James Bond. Tie it in with medieval espionage, intrigue, and murder. Throw in a dab of romance and you have Leslie Silbert's first novel "The Intelligencer." An intelligencer, Silbert explains, is: one who is employed to obtain
secret information, a spy, a secret agent. It was a term used in the late sixteenth century when religious and royal intrigue was at its height. Elizabeth the First was on the throne and Sir Francis Walsingham was her royal spymaster.
Silbert weaves a complicated tale juxtaposing modern day Elizabethan scholar and spy Kate Morgan with Elizabethan playwright, poet, and spy, Christopher Marlowe. The main premise is that an ancient book, recently discovered at a murder scene, contains pages written in code and dates from the late 16th century. It is thought to be a detailed account of Walsingham's spy network. It is Kate's job to to find out what secret the book holds. Silbert herself is a private investigator and Elizabethan scholar so it is no accident that she has found an outlet for her writing in a story full of historical drama, plots against the Queen, and nefarious goings on in the Elizabethan era. She brings the past alive and Marlowe's character is well drawn. He works for spymaster Walsingham and delves into the mean streets, shady backwaters, and taverns of London to do his master's bidding.
There are two warring factions in Elizabeth's court, Lord Cecil and the Earl of Essex. Both are powerful aristocrats and run espionage networks whose main duties are to protect the Queen's interests abroad and to preserve England's trading companies. Working for Cecil, Marlowe is ordered to find out about a secret Northeastern passage to the Orient. This route, if found, would bring dominance to British traders. But, has the route already been found? Gems from the Far East have mysteriously appeared in London at the Royal Exchange. It is suspected that a rival shipping company has found a Northeast passage and is keeping it a secret. It is Marlowe's job to find out.
Meanwhile, back in present day London, Kate Morgan is encrypting the ancient book. A thief employed to steal the book is found dead in Medina's house. Why was he stealing the book and why was he killed? Kate's expertise in Renaissance literature and her knowledge of the intelligence network, makes her the obvious choice to investigate. As she encrypts the pages, Kate is drawn into the world of Walsingham and Marlowe in 16th century England.
Silbert almost seamlessly alternates her chapters from one world to another. As various incidents embroil Marlowe in the undercover world of spying, so four hundred years later similar events threaten Kate. This juxtaposition endows the book with a sense of foreshadowing as chapter follows chapter. Thus Kate is faced with her own mortality following the death of Marlowe and so each chapter, though centuries apart, connects the incidents in a cleverly concocted plot.
There is so much going on in the book that I had to flip back to remind myself of the various characters and events. History lovers will enjoy this book for its well-researched story, and for the fresh look it brings to the thriller genre. Silbert is an accurate historian and paints a believable portrait of the Elizabethan era. Many of the events depicted are factual, and when Kate finally cracks the secret code
using Marlowe's own "Hero and Leander," it rings true. Spies such as Thomas Phellipes and Robert Poley really did exist and Walsingham is credited with being the father of today's complicated intelligence system.
Submitted by Ann Tiffany
Silbert, Leslie. "The Intelligencer." New York: Washington Square Press, 2004.
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