The Bones of Avalon (The John Dee Papers, 1) - Hardcover

With his supernatural touch, a terrifying plot involving a necromancer, Glastonbury, King Arthur's bones, and superb research, Phil Rickman takes us back brilliantly into the dark world of the first Elizabethans. * Ariana Franklin * No-one writes better than Phil Rickman of the shadow-frontier between the supernatural and the real world. * Bernard Cornwell * All Rickman's books are very high on my favourites list * Diana Gabaldon * We don't praise our home-grown thriller writers enough, it's high time we praised Phil Rickman * Daily Mail * Rickman is an excellent writer, terrific on atmosphere * The Times *

It is 1560, and Elizabeth Tudor has been on the throne for a year. Dr John Dee, at 32 already acclaimed throughout Europe, is her astrologer and consultant in the hidden arts... a controversial appointment in these days of superstition and religious strife. Now the mild, bookish Dee has been sent to Glastonbury to find the missing bones of King Arthur, whose legacy was always so important to the Tudor line. With him - hardly the safest companion - is his friend and former student, Robert Dudley, a risk-taker, a wild card... and possibly the Queen's secret lover. The famously mystical town is still mourning the gruesome execution of its Abbot, Richard Whiting. But why was the Abbot really killed? What is the secret held by the monks since the Abbey was founded by Joseph of Arimathea, uncle of Christ and guardian of the Holy Grail? The mission takes Dee to the tangled roots of English magic, into unexpected violence, necromantic darkness, the breathless stirring of first love... and the cold heart of a complex plot against Elizabeth.