Patricia Finney

"In 1592, dashing courtier Sir Robert Carey took up his northern post as Warden of the West March in order to escape the complications of creditors and court life. Trouble, however, dogs his heels wherever he goes. And where he goes in autumn, after various midadventures in Carlisle, is back to London upon a summons from his father."--Back cover.

The third historical mystery based on the life of the real Sir Robert Carey takes place on the Scottish borders in 1592. Investigating a shipment of suspect guns, Deputy Warden Carey forays into enemy Scottish territory and eventually the court of King James VI. Vivid depiction of sixteenth century life.

After his hair-raising adventures in London, Sir Robert Carey has finally tracked down Queen Elizabeth, who is about to make a state visit to Oxford. But instead of giving the Courtier his much-needed warrant and fee for being Deputy Warden of the West March with Scotland, Her Majesty orders him to investigate the most dangerous cold case of her reign--the mysterious 1560 death of Amy Dudley (née Robsart), unloved wife of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Some thirty years back, the late Dudley was Elizabeth's favorite suitor and potential husband. Amy died at Cumnor Place, close at hand. The Queen has since been one of the most obvious suspects in arranging Amy's murder. This makes Carey deeply uneasy with his sleuthing role. He's further uneasy that his father, Elizabeth's cousin from the wrong side of the blanket, is clearly involved. Then someone manages to poison Carey with belladonna, which temporarily blinds him. Worse still, Sergeant Dodd, the man most often guarding Carey's back, has disappeared on the road from London. As the Queen's scandalous past collides with her magnificent State entrance into Oxford, can Carey rally in time to find both Dodd and the true murderer of Amy Robsart?

While policing the Scottish border for Elizabeth I's government, Sir Robert Carey busts a plot by a clan to abduct for ransom Lady Elizabeth Widdrington, an unhappily married woman who is the love of his life.

Carlisle in 1592 is one of the most dangerous parts of Queen Elizabeth's kingdom, where the law of the Scots gives way to the law of the English, often leaving gaps where there is no law at all. Sir Robert Carey, the new deputy warden of the West March, must solve a murder and avert a minor civil war.

Thursday, 12th October, 1592. Eighteen days after the action closes in An Air of Treason, courtier Sir Robert Carey and Carey's surly, larcenous, and loyal henchman Henry Dodd, Land Sergeant of Gilsland, are back in Carlisle and the Debateable Lands -- the Border country, the Wild North, the land of the hot trod where the thieving, feuding reiver clans are "English when it suited, and Scots at their pleasure." A Chorus of Innocents ushers forward Lady Elizabeth Widdrington, a married woman whom Carey adores but respects. It opens when a very pregnant young woman rides to Lady Widdrington's tower crying that her minister husband has been murdered and she herself has been raped.