"A complete success...action fans and PBS types can share their
enthusiasm" (Booklist, starred review) when a young Queen Elizabeth I is
thrust into a gripping game of deception and lust at the height of the
Ottoman Empire in this edge-of-your-seat historical thriller from the
New York Times bestselling author of The Great Zoo of China and
Temple.The year is 1546, and Suleiman the Magnificent, the feared Sultan
of the Ottoman Empire, issues an invitation to every king in Europe: You
are invited to send your finest player to compete in a chess tournament
to determine the champion of the known world. Thousands converge on
Constantinople, including the English court's champion and his guide,
the esteemed scholar Roger Ascham. Seeing a chance to enlighten the mind
of a student, Ascham brings along Elizabeth Tudor, a brilliant young
woman not yet consumed by royal duties in Henry VIII's court. Yet on the
opening night of the tournament, a powerful guest of the Sultan is
murdered. Soon, barbaric deaths, diplomatic corruption, and unimaginable
depravity--sexual and otherwise--unfold before Elizabeth's and Ascham's
eyes. The pair soon realizes that the real chess game is being played
within the court itself...and its most treacherous element is that a
stranger in a strange land is only as safe as her host is gracious.
