It's April 1616, and William Shakespeare is mortally ill, felled, they say, by a fever. But when he calls his estranged friend Constable Simon Saddler to his bedside, Shakespeare tells him that his illness is no fever, but poison. When the poet dies just days later, Saddler feels compelled to investigate his old friend's death to discover, not just who murdered him, but how a man who was once as close as a brother was moved to cuckold Simon and split their friendship apart. The trail is long, but before it's over, Simon finds himself wrapped up in two murders, and a conspiracy that reaches to the king's own doorstep.

Author Biography

Tennessean Tony Hays says he has been a tinker/tailor/soldier/spy during his life, visiting 30 countries and living in seven. He is no stranger to government service and undercover journalism. When he turned to thriller writing, P Tony Hays died in Egypt in 2015 at the age of 58.