The Elizabethan spy discovers conspiracy and murder in northern England in this historical mystery inspired by true events. England, 1593. Under the threat of a second Spanish Armada, the maverick magician Dr. Dee has created a secret weapon for the crown. Now John Shakespeare—court spy and brother of the famous playwright—has been sent to Lancashire to keep the man and his invention safe. But when the country is a hotbed of secret loyalties and civil unrest, a simple assignment leads to deadly complications. Shakespeare stumbles upon Catholic priests in hiding, a mysterious Bohemian seductress, and—of course—murder. Between facing off with a nefarious witch hunter and attending one of the first performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the intrepid John Shakespeare fights to stay alive while on the hunt for a deadly traitor.