The Firemaster’s Mistress

Set during the turbulent British 1600s, author Dickason vividly captures James I’s reign and Guy Fawkes’s plot to blow up London’s Parliament in a novel of romance and intrigue. After the discovery of a young fisherman’s body, whose death somehow ties in to a plot against the king, young explosives expert Francis Quoynt accepts a dangerous mission from the Earl of Salisbury: he must turn traitor to England in order to infiltrate the band of men plotting the king’s assassination. Also in London is Francis’s former lover Kate Peach, whose family was killed by the plague and whose Catholicism endangers her life. Taking up her father’s glove-making trade, albeit illegally, Kate hopes to save up enough money to flee London and her cruel “protector and some-time lover,” Hugh Traylor. When she and Francis reunite, passion sparks but mistrust runs high. Though the leads are strong, especially the believably conflicted Kate, Dickason keeps adding new players throughout, some real and some fictional (a helpful character list makes the distinction); keeping track of their relationships is a challenge, complicated by a narrative that bounces among the principals. That said, Dickason’s tale is fascinating, offering an unexpected level of complexity and a shocker of an ending. (Oct.)