An Ensuing Evil and Others

A
N

E
NSUING

E
VIL

and Others

By Peter Tremayne

Absolution by Murder

Shroud for the Archbishop

Suffer Little Children

The Subtle Serpent

The Spider’s Web

Hemlock at Vespers

Valley of the Shadow

The Monk Who Vanished

Act of Mercy

Our Lady of Darkness

Smoke in the Wind

The Haunted Abbot

Whispers of the Dead

Badger’s Moon

The Leper’s Bell

An Ensuing Evil and Others

Master of Souls*

* forthcoming

AN
ENSUING EVIL
AND OTHERS

Fourteen Historical Mystery Stories

PETER TREMAYNE

AN ENSUING EVIL AND OTHERS

. Copyright © 2006 by Peter Tremayne. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

www.minotaurbooks.com

Design by Jonathan Bennett

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tremayne, Peter.

An ensuing evil and others: fourteen historical mystery stories/by Peter Tremayne. —1st St. Martin’s Minotaur ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-312-34228-4

EAN 978-0-312-34228-9

1. Detective and mystery stories, English. 2. Historical fiction, English. I. Title.

PR6070. R366E575 2006
823′.914—dc22

2005049772

10  9  8  7  6  5  4  3

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

‘Night’s Black Angels,” originally published in
Royal Whodunnits
, edited by Mike Ashley (UK: Robinson, 1999; US: Carroll & Graf, 1999).

‘An Ensuing Evil,” originally published in
Shakespeare Whodunnits
, edited by Mike Ashley (UK: Robinson, 1997; US: Carroll & Graf, 1997).

‘Methought You Saw a Serpent,” originally published in
Shakespearian Detectives
, edited by Mike Ashley (UK: Robinson, 1998; US: Carroll & Graf, 1998).

‘The Game’s Afoot,” originally published as “Let the Game Begin!” in
Much Ado about Murder
, edited by Anne Perry (US: Berkley Books, 2002).

‘The Revenge of the Gunner’s Daughter,” originally published in
The Mammoth Book of Hearts of Oak
, edited by Mike Ashley (UK: Robinson, 2001).

‘The Passing Shadow,” originally published in
Death by Dickens
, edited by Anne Perry and Martin H. Greenberg (US: Berkley, 2004).

The Affair at the Kildare Street Club,” originally published in
New Sherlock Holmes Adventures
, edited by Mike Ashley (UK: Robinson, 1997; US: Carroll & Graf, i’997).

‘The Specter of Tullyfane Abbey,” originally published in
Villains Victorious
, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and John Heifers (US: DAW Books, 2001).

The Siren of Sennen Cove,” originally published in
Murder in Baker Street
, edited by Martin H. Greenberg, Jon L.Lellenberg, and Daniel Stashower (US: Caroll & Graf 2001).

“The Kidnapping of Mycroft Holmes,” originally published in
The Strand Magazine
(US: Issue #X, May-September 2003).

“A Study in Orange,” originally published in
My Sherlock Holmes, edited by Michael Kurland (US: St. Martins Minotaur, 2003)
.

“The Eye of Shiva,” originally published in
The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives
, edited by Mike Ashley (UK: Robinson, 1995; US: Carroll & Graf, 1995).

“Murder in the Air,” originally published in
The Mammoth Book of Locked Room Mysteries and Impossible Crimes
, edited by Mike Ashley (UK: Robinson, 2000; US: Carroll & Graf, 2000).

“The Spiteful Shadow,” originally published in
The Mammoth Book of New Historical Whodunnits
, edited by Mike Ashley (UK: Robinson, 2005; US: Carroll & Graf, 2005).

For a good friend,
Maurice McCann,
who appreciates the
short mystery tale

CONTENTS

PREFACE

NIGHT’S BLACK AGENTS

AN ENSUING EVIL

METHOUGHT YOU SAW A SERPENT

THE GAME’S AFOOT!

THE REVENGE OF THE GUNNER’S DAUGHTER

THE PASSING SHADOW

THE AFFRAY AT THE KILDARE STREET CLUB

THE SPECTER OF TULLYFANE ABBEY

THE SIREN OF SENNEN COVE

THE KIDNAPPING OF MYCROFT HOLMES

A STUDY IN ORANGE

THE EYE OF SHIVA

MURDER IN THE AIR

THE SPITEFUL SHADOW

PREFACE

My name now appears to be irrevocably identified as the creator of Sister Fidelma, my seventh-century Irish sleuth. From time to time, readers write to me expressing surprise at having discovered that I have written mysteries set in other historical periods and cultures.

It reminds me of when I was a young aspiring writer. I was attending a launch party for a new Nicholas Blake thriller. Nicholas Blake was the pseudonym of the United Kingdom’s poet laureate of the time, Cecil Day Lewis (1904-1972). I had the temerity to ask the great man why he wrote detective stories under a pseudonym. He took my question in good humor. “Because, young man,” he said graciously, “a poet can’t write detective stories.” He was then drawn away into the wine-guzzling throng, leaving me to ponder on his enigmatic response.

It was some time before I understood what he meant. When a writer is known for producing a certain “product,” it is thought that the public won’t allow him to produce anything different. Poor Arthur Conan Doyle; he was driven to killing off his creation, Sherlock Holmes, in his desire to get recognition for his historical novels. It didn’t work. He had to resurrect Sherlock Holmes, and never fulfilled his ambition to be acclaimed as a great historical novelist.

I am not so extreme as to want to kill off Sister Fidelma to make my point. But the fact is that I have written other tales. As well as my own character creations, sleuths created by other writers in the genre have always fascinated me. I suppose my very first crime mystery novel was a genuflection to Ernest William Hornung (1866-1921) and his creation, Raffles, the “gentleman burglar” whose first stories appeared as
The Amateur Cracksman
in 1899. Only three books of the adventures of Raffles and his fumbling, unwilling accomplice, Bunny Manders, were published, but they achieved a special place in literary criminology. So I decided to continue the Raffles saga with a novel,
The Return of Raffles
.

The current collection of short stories is put together to demonstrate my fascination with historical settings for crime, ranging from eleventh-century Scotland to the twenty-first century—set somewhere thirty-two thousand feet above the earth!

The title of the first story, “Night’s Black Agents,” might well be taken from the quote from Shakespeare’s
Macbeth
and does feature that Scottish monarch, but this is a story of the real historical High King of Scotland, who ruled from 1040 to 1057. There is no real Shakespearean connection. This tale takes place in 1033, seven years before MacBeth (a better way of Anglicizing his real name of MacBheatha mac Findlaech) was elected High King, but just one year after he became
mormaer
, or “provincial ruler,” of the province of Moray. The murder of Malcolm Mac Bodhe, the brother of Mac-Beth s wife, Gruoch, is recorded in the ancient annals. Who was responsible? In this tale, it is MacBeth who investigates.

Like most writers, however, I am an enthusiastic admirer of William Shakespeare and a frequent attendee at the Globe Theatre in London. I cannot thank the shade of the late Sam Wanamaker (1919-1993), the actor and director who was the driving force in the project to build an authentic replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in its original location on London’s south bank, called Bank-side. It was while having a coffee at The Globe after a performance that I conceived the idea of a Shakespearean detective. Master Hardy Drew was the Constable of the Bankside Watch. The crimes he has to solve all occur in and around the Globe. “An Ensuing Evil” was written first and relates directly to events arising from the first performance of
All Is True
, later printed as
Henry the Eighth
on June 24, 1613. This was followed by “Methought You Saw a Serpent,” inspired by
All’s Well that Ends Well
, over which there is some disagreement when it was written. I have opted for 1601 and linked it to the execution of Queen Elizabeth Is one-time favorite, the Earl of Essex. Finally, there is “The Game’s Afoot,” inspired by a line from
The Life of King Henry the Fifth
.