The Secret World of Christoval Alvarez (The Chronicles of Christoval Alvarez) - Softcover

Swinfen, Ann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0992822831 ISBN 13: 9780992822835

Publisher: Shakenoak Press, 2014

Synopsis

It is the year 1586. England is awash with traitors, plotting to assassinate the Queen and bring about a foreign invasion. The young physician Christoval Alvarez, a refugee from the horrors of the Portuguese Inquisition, is coerced into becoming a code-breaker and agent in Sir Francis Walsingham’s secret service. In the race to thwart the plot, who will triumph – the ruthless conspirators or the equally ruthless State?

About this title

About the Author

Ann Swinfen spent her childhood partly in England and partly on the east coast of America. She read Classics and Mathematics at Oxford, where she married a fellow undergraduate, the historian David Swinfen. While bringing up their five children and studying for an MSc in Mathematics and a BA and PhD in English Literature, she had a variety of jobs, including university lecturer, translator, freelance journalist and software designer. She served for nine years on the governing council of the Open University and for five years worked as a manager and editor in the technical author division of an international computer company, but gave up her full-time job to concentrate on her writing, while continuing part-time university teaching. In 1995 she founded Dundee Book Events, a voluntary organisation promoting books and authors to the general public. Her first three novels, The Anniversary, The Travellers, and A Running Tide, all with a contemporary setting but also historical resonance, were published by Random House, with translations into Dutch and German. Her fourth novel, The Testament of Mariam, marked something of a departure. Set in the first century, it recounts, from an unusual perspective, one of the most famous and yet ambiguous stories in human history. At the same time it explores life under a foreign occupying force, in lands still torn by conflict to this day. Her latest novel, Flood, is set in the fenlands of East Anglia during the seventeenth century, where the local people fight desperately to save their land from greedy and unscrupulous speculators. The Secret World of Christoval Alvarez is the first book in a series featuring Kit Alvarez and Walsingham’s secret service. She now lives on the northeast coast of Scotland, with her husband (formerly vice-principal of the University of Dundee), a cocker spaniel and two Maine Coon cats. www.annswinfen.com

Review

There is so much intrigue going on in this book...but that is one of the best things about it. You can tell that Ann Swinfen has put a lot of research into what went on during this time period weaving it into a story that is equal parts fiction to the historical events of the era. The world is rich and the characters, especially Christoval, have so many layers it keeps your attention from the first page to the last. If you want a book full of history, adventure and turns to keep you interested, this is for you. I can't wait to read more from this author.
 -Reviewed By Readers' Favorite

About this edition

• Publisher: Shakenoak Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0992822831
• ISBN 13: 9780992822835
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 292