Mary Gentle - A Sundial in a Grave (epub)[j_ray]

"It's about sex, and cruelty, and forgiveness."

Thus begins a sweeping historical adventure about two dueling swordsmen and the plot
to kill a king in the grand tradition of Dorothy Dunnett and Alexander Dumas.

The year is 1610. Continental Europe is briefly at peace after years of war, but
Henri IV of France is planning to invade the German principalities. In England, only
five years earlier, conspirators nearly succeeded in blowing up King James I and
his Parliament. The seeds of the English Civil War and the Thirty Years War are
visibly being sown, and the possibility for both enlightenment and disaster abounds.

But Valentin Rochefort, duelist and spy for France's powerful financial minister,
could not care less. Until he is drawn into the glittering palaces, bawdy back
streets, and stunning theatrics of Renaissance France and Shakespearean London in a
deadly plot both to kill King James I and to save him. For this swordsman without a
conscience is about to find himself caught between loyalty, love, and blackmail,
between kings, queens, politicians, and Rosicrucians -- and the woman he has,
unknowingly, crossed land and sea to meet.

Title: A Sundial in a Grave: 1610: A Novel
Author: Mary Gentle
Published: May 3, 2005, by Harper
Language: English
Genre: Alternative History / Fantasy
ISBN-13: 978-0380820412
Length: 688 pages