A Play of Deceit

1590. London. Sixteen-year-old boy actor James Sandys is looking forward to future roles playing princes, kings, and heroes. His theatre is one of several built in Southwark, outside the confines of the city wall, as playwrights burst forth with new styles of writing and plots within plots. With parents dead, the troupe is his family; the theatre leader, Stuart de Vigan, a father-figure. There is much to look forward to. Then he is asked to carry letters for his master to various addresses around the city. He meets a mysterious woman accompanied by a gentleman of imposing presence, and reunites with an old school friend now a talented actor who moves within Court circles and has connections to William Cecil, High Lord Treasurer, and his band of agents and informants. And a runaway, stealing food from the theatre yard, leads him into an adventure with confusion and danger at every turn. And tragedy; not that which is acted out on stage, but real and personal. As the pressure builds to perform play after play and attract investment for the theatre, so James' own tale gathers apace and becomes a race against time, not just to help his runaway but to protect the very future of the kingdom and even the life of Queen Elizabeth.