In 1592, Sir Robert Carey, a handsome courtier fleeing his creditors, his father's wrath, and the close scrutiny of his Queen, came north to Carlisle to take up his new post as Deputy Warden of the West March. The presence of his true love, the married Elizabeth Widdrington, was no mere coincidence. Before long, Sir Robert was up to his ruff in horse rustling and treason (A Famine of Horses), but he sorted that out with dispatch. 
Now he's in trouble again. The rowdy Grahams plan to kidnap Elizabeth as she journeys home to her husband. While Sir Robert storms out to stop them, someone murders the man he has just sacked from his post of paymaster to the Carlisle garrison. When Sir Robert returns, he finds his servant Barnabus slung into the castle dungeon, accused of the crime, and his arch enemy Sir Richard Lowther scheming to have Carey arrested for masterminding the murder.... 
When even faithful Sergeant Dodd is prepared to believe he did it, the courtier finds his hands full--while ruin stares him in the face--as he juggles the murder inquiry and untangles a skein of love and greed that reminds him most uncomfortably of how carefully he must conceal his love for Elizabeth. 
A Season of Knives, based on the real Sir Robert Carey's tumultuous life, is not only a keenly plotted detective story, it's an innovative police procedural and historical writing at its rousing best. 
The other works in this series are A Plague of Angels (Introduction by Diana Gabaldon), A Famine of Horses (Introduction by Sharon Kay Penman), and A Surfeit of Guns (Introduction by Barbara Peters). The author is at work on a fifth Sir Robert Carey.

A Season of Knives

P.F. Chisholm

Patricia Finney

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

London Corgi 1995

Set in Elizabethan England, this crime novel tells of Sir Robert Carey, the hero of "A Famine of Horses", who is suspected of murdering the man he has just sacked as paymaster of the garrison at Carlisle Castle. A ruthless killer is at large, and Carey has to track him down.

Mystery

Hodder & Stoughton General Division

In 1592, dashing courtier Sir Robert Carey took up his northern post as Warden of the West March in order to escape the complications of creditors and court life. Trouble, however, dogs his heels wherever he goes. And where he goes in autumn, after the summer's misadventures in Carlisle, is back to London upon a summons from his father.Carey is on difficult terms with his powerful sire, Henry, Lord Hunsdon. Hunsdon, son of Anne Boleyn's elder sister, Mary -- and probably of a young King Henry VIII -- swings a lot of weight as ""cousin"" to Queen Elizabeth. But Hunsdon needs his ingenious younger son, Carey to sort out the difficulties his elder son has got himself into as an innocent party in a plot to discredit the family.Accompanied by the shrewd Sergeant George Dodd, who's like a fish out of water as he copes with the strange Londoners, Carey tackles Catholics, treachery, and such persons known to history and students of literature as George Greene and Christopher Marlowe who are working as spies and double agents. Most arresting is a portrait of a love-sick, snivelling hanger-on named Will Shakespeare....

A Plague Of Angels

Literature & Fiction

Genre Fiction

Hodder&Stoughton

As wild as the American West, P. F. Chisholm's witty historical detections are also elegantly crafted and historically accurate as they re-imagine the life of a real Elizabethan gunslinger in 16th century England. September 1592 -- and the redoubtable Sergeant Dodd is still in London with that dashing courtier Sir Robert Carey, dealing with the fall-out from their earlier adventures. Carey urgently needs to get back to Carlisle, where he is the Deputy Warden and the raiding season is about to begin. However, there are complications in the way. His powerful father, Lord Henry Hunsdon -- son of the other Boleyn girl, Mary, and her paramour, young Henry VIII -- wants him to solve the mystery of a badly decomposed corpse from the Thames that has washed up on Her Majesty's Privy Steps. Meanwhile, although he hates London, Sergeant Dodd has decided that he will not go north until he has taken a suitable revenge for his mistreatment by the Queen's Vice Chamberlain, Thomas Heneage. Carey's father wants him to sue -- but none of the lawyers in London will take the brief against such a dangerous courtier. Then a mysterious young lawyer with a pock-marked face offers to help Dodd, with suspicious eagerness. Nobody knows who that balding young would-be poet and lover William Shakespeare might be working for, if he knows himself. And then, just as Carey is resigning himself to the delay, the one person he really does not want to see again arrives in London to stir everything up.  With the River Thames for a freeway and the dark streets of London full of people up to no good, Sergeant Dodd has to help Carey find the identity of the corpse and who murdered him, while bringing a little taste of the Borders to his dealings with Heneage.

A Murder of Crows (Sir Robert Carey Mysteries)

Blackstone Publishing

After his hair-raising adventures in London, Sir Robert Carey has finally tracked down Queen Elizabeth, who orders him to investigate the most dangerous cold case of her reign - the mysterious 1560 death of Amy Dudley (née Robsart), unloved wife of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Some thirty years back, the late Dudley was Elizabeth's favorite suitor and potential husband. The Queen has since been one of the most obvious suspects in arranging Amy's murder. This makes Carey deeply uneasy with his sleuthing role. Then someone manages to poison Carey with belladonna, which temporarily blinds him. Worse still, the steadfast Sergeant Dodd has disappeared on the road from London. As the Queen's scandalous past collides with her magnificent State entrance into Oxford, can Carey rally in time to find both Dodd and the true murderer of Amy Robsart?

An Air of Treason (Sir Robert Carey)

Poisoned Pen Press

Sir Robert Carey is back in another mystery-adventure full of vibrant personalities and derring-do. Thursday, 12th October, 1592. Eighteen days after the action closes in An Air of Treason, courtier Sir Robert Carey and Carey's surly, larcenous, and loyal henchman Henry Dodd, Land Sergeant of Gilsland, are back in Carlisle and the Debateable Lands -- the Border country, the wild North, the land of the hot trod where the thieving, feuding reiver clans are ''English when it suited, and Scots at their pleasure.'' A Chorus of Innocents ushers forward Lady Elizabeth Widdrington, a married woman whom Carey adores but respects. It opens when a very pregnant young woman rides to Lady Widdrington's tower crying that her minister husband has been murdered and she herself has been raped. Listeners will meet canny King James VI; his amoral favorite Lord Spynie; the fey Lady Hume; Mr. Anricks, a surprisingly skilled tooth drawer; Young Henry Widdrington with his unfortunate spots; and all the boys in murdered Minister Burn's choir. The action proceeds full tilt and finishes with a bang.

A Chorus of Innocents (Sir Robert Carey Mysteries, Book 7)

Blackstone Audio,Inc.

"Carey and Dodd are back...the best detective pairing since Holmes and Watson."―SHARON KAY PENMAN, New York Times bestselling author
It's September 1592, and Sergeant Dodd is still in London with dashing courtier Sir Robert Carey. Carey urgently needs to get back to Carlisle where he is the Deputy Warden; the raiding season is about to begin. However, his powerful father, Henry, Lord Hunsdon, wants him to solve the mystery of a badly decomposed corpse that has washed up from the Thames on Her Majesty's privy steps.
Meanwhile, although he hates London, Sergeant Dodd has decided not to go north until he has taken revenge for his mistreatment by the Queen's Vice Chamberlain, Thomas Heneage. Carey's father wants him to sue, but none of the lawyers in London will take the brief against such a dangerous courtier. Soon a mysterious young lawyer with a pock-marked face eagerly offers to help Dodd. And then, just as Carey is resigning himself to the delay, the one person he really does not want to see again arrives in London to stir up everything.

A Murder of Crows (Sir Robert Carey Series)

A Famine Of Horses

Poisoned Pen Press Inc

Featuring books 1, 2 and 3 in the Sir Robert Carey Mysteries: A Famine of Horses , A Season of Knives and A Surfeit of Guns . 'I love P.F. Chisholm's mysteries! Robert Carey is irresistible, a swashbuckling courtier who is cousin to the Tudor queen, impulsive, courageous, too clever by half, in love with an unhappily married woman, and best of all, it is all true' Sharon Penman . 'Sir Robert Carey is real a swashbuckling, chivalrous dandy. He's cousin to Queen Elizabeth I and related to almost everybody at Court. He's good at war and investigations, a serious fashion-victim with a quick temper and an ingenious imagination. I have lifted him pretty much unchanged from the pages of his memoirs. As G.M. Fraser said, "If Sir Robert Carey hadn't existed, it would have been necessary to invent him"' P.F. Chisholm .

Guns in the North (The Sir Robert Carey Mysteries Omnibus)

Head of Zeus

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Books by P.F. Chisholm

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by P.F. Chisholm. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Season of Knives

A Season of Knives

A Plague Of Angels

A Murder of Crows (Sir Robert Carey Mysteries)

An Air of Treason (Sir Robert Carey)

A Chorus of Innocents (Sir Robert Carey Mysteries, Book 7)

A Murder of Crows (Sir Robert Carey Series)

A Famine Of Horses

Guns in the North (The Sir Robert Carey Mysteries Omnibus)