9 The Chronicles of Christoval Alvarez books in order

It is the year 1586. England is awash with traitors, plotting to assassinate the Queen and bring about a foreign invasion. The young physician Christoval Alvarez, a refugee from the horrors of the Portuguese Inquisition, is coerced into becoming a code-breaker and agent in Sir Francis Walsingham’s secret service. In… show more.

Facing the threat of King Philip’s Enterprise of England – Spanish invasion and annexation of the country – Sir Francis Walsingham’s secret service spreads a network of agents across Europe. After caring for hundreds of maimed and wounded soldiers returning from the fall of Sluys, young physician and code-breaker Christoval… show more.

The year after defeating the Spanish Armada, England retaliates. The expedition to Portugal sets out to destroy what remains of Spain’s Atlantic fleet, drive the Spanish out of Portugal, put the claimant Dom Antonio of Aviz on the throne, and seize the Azores. But from the time the English fleet,… show more.

When Bartholomew Fair, London’s largest public festival, is threatened in 1589 by five hundred armed soldiers dismissed from service without pay, the authorities act swiftly and decisively to prevent trouble. Yet other trouble is brewing. Young physician and code-breaker Christoval Alvarez stumbles upon a sinister troupe of Italian puppeteers bent… show more.

In Elizabethan London, no child is safe. Children are misused and exploited by parents, masters, strangers, and society at large. Even the children of the rich are in danger. When a five-year-old heiress to great estates is kidnapped, Christoval Alvarez, the players of James Burbage’s company, and a disreputable group… show more.

An agent sent to Muscovy to investigate suspected treason amongst employees of the Muscovy Company has disappeared without trace on the way to Astrakhan. Sir Francis Walsingham, who began the investigation, is dead, but the directors of the Company know that the agent must be found, dead or alive.

The… show more.

When Kit Alvarez returns from Muscovy, it is to discover that her post as physician at St Thomas’s hospital has been given to another. Trying to eke out the small income she earns from some of Dr Nuñez’s private patients, she undertakes paid work as a copyist with James Burbage’s… show more.

When the violent arrest of an innocent apprentice sparks a riot in Southwark during the summer of 1592, more lies behind it than a simple grievance. Increasing poverty, vagrancy, and crime in a restless London compel a nervous Privy Council to close the playhouses, forcing Lord Strange’s Men to go… show more.

When ruthless men are locked in an unremitting struggle for supremacy, even the innocent may become victims. The Earl of Essex, Elizabeth I’s arrogant favourite, will stop at nothing in his greedy pursuit of power, at times heedlessly trying her patience too far. His great rival, Lord Burghley’s son Sir… show more.