Traitor cover art

Traitor

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Traitor

By: Rory Clements
Narrated by: Gareth Armstrong
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

From Rory Clements, winner of the Ellis Peters Historical Fiction Award, comes Traitor, the fourth in his acclaimed John Shakespeare Elizabethan mystery series.

"Does for Elizabeth's reign what C. J. Sansom does for Henry VIII's" (Sunday Times).

The Elizabethan navy has a secret weapon: an optical instrument so powerful it gives England unassailable superiority at sea. Spain will stop at nothing to steal it and seize the two men who understand its secrets - William Ivory, the 'Queen's Eye', and the magician Dr Dee. With a second Armada threatened, intelligencer John Shakespeare is sent north to escort Dr Dee to safety. But he finds Dee's host, the Earl of Derby, dying in agony, apparently poisoned.

Who wants him dead and why? What lies behind the lynching of a recusant priest, and how is the mysterious but beautiful Lady Eliska involved?

While Shakespeare attempts to untangle a plot that points to treachery at the very highest reaches of government, he also faces serious accusations far closer to home. With so much at stake, must he choose between family and his duty to Queen and country?

©2011 Rory Clements (P)2012 John Murray Historical Fiction Fiction Royalty Magic Users

Listeners also enjoyed...

 State of Treason cover art
The Seeker cover art
Prince of Spies cover art
The Ashes of London cover art
The Executioner of St Paul's cover art
An Honourable Thief cover art
A Conspiracy of Violence cover art
The Chelsea Strangler cover art
A Plague on Both Your Houses cover art
The King's Spy cover art
Marius' Mules I: The Invasion of Gaul cover art
Agent in Berlin cover art
Cathedral of Bones cover art
Legacy cover art
The King's Justice cover art
Vampire Crusader cover art

Critic reviews

"Beautifully done . . . alive and tremendously engrossing" ( Daily Telegraph)
"A colourful history lesson . . . exciting narrative twists" ( Sunday Telegraph)
"Enjoyable, bloody and brutish" ( Guardian)
All stars
Most relevant  
Not the best John Shakespeare but still a good read thoroughly enjoying the series and still looking forward to the next one.....

Good yarn

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Well read hard to put down good character performance funny at times a good story

The story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Absolutely loved it. I felt like I'd been sent back in time and was part of the story. 10/10

Most enjoyable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Good story building on the characters we already know. Keeps you interested throughout wanting to see what will happen.

Rory Clements Shakespeare series is excellent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really bought each character to life really brought each character to life dingdong bell dingdong bell

Amazing performance

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I thoroughly enjoyed the book. A gripping story line and believable characters. The narration was perfectly balanced and the voices well matched to the character. I will read the next book in the series

Traitor - left wanting more

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The Book

Traitor is the fourth in a series of five novels (so far) by Rory Clements, following Martyr, Revenger and Prince and preceding The Heretics. John Shakespeare is the fictional brother of William Shakespeare and is an intelligencer – an agent in the Tudor court of Elizabeth I. Each book sees Shakespeare solving a different crisis, and in this one it’s the theft of a unique telescope that could win England its struggle with the Spanish. Together with Boltfoot Cooper – the Watson to his Holmes – Shakespeare must find the telescope and the one man who can use it, battling the forces of politics, injustice and threats to his family along the way.



The Story

The story is energetic and engaging, and Clements conveys a real sense of the period – the injustice, the poverty and the religious intolerance – without making the story-telling turgid. The story weaves fictional characters and situations with those from history in a way that is seamless and convincing, and there’s a clear sense of authenticity to the many historical details that add colour to the prose. As the fourth in the series, Traitor develops a story arc that was started in the first book, Martyr, but enough back-story is peppered into the plot to make Traitor a novel that can stand on its own feet and make reading its predecessors unnecessary.



The Narration

Gareth Armstrong’s reading is clear and well-paced, and his delivery rich and emotional without being over-dramatic. He gives each character its own voice and personality and stays true to both throughout the story – it’s easy to think you’re listening to a drama with multiple actors. Armstrong does women’s voices very well too, and in giving lisps, breathlessness and even buck teeth to his characters, he brings them alive.

Intrigue and adventure in Elizabethan England

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Am really enjoying these books.
Quite pleased that I have only just started the series, plenty of listening to look forward to!!!!

Very entertaining book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I love all of these books. I hope there may be more as I have now read or listened to them all.

I love John Shakespeare

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.