The Complete Elizabethan Murder Mysteries Books 1-8

This box set includes the following 8 novels:Book 1: The Players' Boy Is DeadIn Shakespearean England, a small players’ troupe performs for a lord and his lady, and none shines more than the young players’ boy. But, at cock’s crow the next day, he is found brutally murdered in his stable bed.Book 2: Low TreasonMatthew Stock’s young relation, Thomas, leaves home to apprentice himself to Castell, a jeweller in London. Then he disappears. Castell writes to say Thomas has gone to sea, but Stock is suspicious. He leaves to search for the boy, who meanwhile returns to Essex and tells Joan of the danger he’s in.Book 3: Familiar Spirits1602. Chelmsford is in a frenzy. Witch hunts have pitted neighbours against one another, and there’s a collective hysteria about recent eerie events. What will Matthew and Joan make of the sudden, unexplained deaths and lingering spirits?Book 4: The Bartholomew Fair MurdersMatthew Stock becomes involved in murderous matters when he discovers that a bear, trained to kill dogs for the St Bartholomew Fair – attended by the queen – has set its sight on a higher prize.Book 5: Old Saxon BloodSir John Challoner has been murdered, so why does no one want to help Joan and Matthew Stock investigate? The castle servants are sullen and the neighbouring gentry abusive. When someone hides the headless body of a serving maid in their chamber, even the level-headed Stocks fear the strange spirit of evil that haunts the castle.Book 6: Knaves TemplarOne by one, law students are dying. All are deemed suicides, but in truth they are murders, and it befalls humble clothier Matthew Stock to unravel the truth. Meanwhile, Matthew’s wife, Joan, uncovers dangerous secrets on London’s bawdy Elizabethan streets.Book 7: Witness of BonesAs Queen Elizabeth slowly dies, Puritans and Papists play a game of deception. A plot is afoot to unseat her principal advisor, Sir Robert Cecil. Therefore, merchant-constable Matthew Stock, who considers Sir Robert his master, becomes a principal pawn.Book 8: Frobisher's SavageWhen Sir Martin Frobisher went in search of a Northwest Passage, he got as far as Canada before returning to England. On his return, he was accompanied by an Eskimo man, whom he names “Adam Nemo”. Years later a local family is brutally mutilated, and fingers are pointed at Adam. Matthew and Joan Stock are determined to prove his innocence.