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Recently returned from Flanders, Firemaster Francis Quoynt wants to retire from warfare and make fireworks. Unfortunately for him, Robert Cecil, the First Minister, has other ideas, and recruits him to spy on conspirators. Kate Peach was Quoynt’s lover before the war, and with her family dead, she’s had to seek a new protector. He happens to be one of the conspirators, and forces Kate to reconnect with Quoynt, using the fact that she’s secretly a Catholic to blackmail her.
The plot is based largely on conspiracy theories surrounding the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 (best known in popular culture as being the history behind Guy Fawkes Day, though I admit that’s one of the cultural phenomonons that mystifies me a bit). I’m familiar with the history but not with the theories, and so most of it was pretty new to me. For the most part, I enjoyed this, though Dickason seemed to forget about Kate a few times towards the end, and I’m not really thrilled with parts of how her story turned out. It felt like Dickason was trying to avoid an expected ending and ended up bowing to a much worse convention.
The plot is based largely on conspiracy theories surrounding the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 (best known in popular culture as being the history behind Guy Fawkes Day, though I admit that’s one of the cultural phenomonons that mystifies me a bit). I’m familiar with the history but not with the theories, and so most of it was pretty new to me. For the most part, I enjoyed this, though Dickason seemed to forget about Kate a few times towards the end, and I’m not really thrilled with parts of how her story turned out. It felt like Dickason was trying to avoid an expected ending and ended up bowing to a much worse convention.
