The Darkening Globe

London, 1597. Beatrice’s husband Hugh returns from a voyage to the New World with a mysterious woman and an enormous painted globe, but refuses to explain either his guest or what occurred overseas. Beatrice already has secrets of her own, and the tense household becomes more threatening when the globe appears to turn without human intervention.

New images emerge on the globe before a succession of deaths, convincing Beatrice that the object is connected to the killings. Her investigation draws together domestic betrayal, maritime ambition, cartography and fear of the unknown at the end of Elizabeth I’s reign. The novel is historically atmospheric rather than biographical: its central family and mystery are fictional, while the age of exploration supplies the social and intellectual setting.