A boy working for Elizabeth I's spymaster must decide whether to live in the dark world of espionage and torture, or to risk his life to escape...

Working in the dark shadows of Elizabeth I's glory, the spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham protects his queen with plots, entrapment and torture. When Kit is forced into Walsingham's service, he is horrified at what he sees. Can he work in Walsingham's police state and live with himself? And what will happen if Walsingham ceases to protect him? Some secrets are deadly...

"A short and relatively easy read, this gives an excellent insight into the court and is a good way to support study of the Tudors in KS2, bringing a fresh look to the topic." - www.parentsintouch.co.uk

"Historical novels are a marvellous way of helping children to understand history and giving them a new perspective on events and the Flashbacks series are particularly good at bringing history to life. It's an exciting and dramatic story set in a colourful and tense period." - www.parentsintouch.co.uk

"Gripping and more historically accurate than some of the Tudor fantasies currently on offer, it illustrates clearly the savagery of public life and the moral dilemmas facing one well-meaning boy in a time of religious turmoil. Chancellor's succinct descriptions bring Tudor London to life with vivid period detail to ratchet up the mood of menace." - Historical Novel Society