Horses of the Night

Christopher Marlowe: poet, playwright, lover, brawler, spy.

Protestant England is threatened by Catholic powers on the continent. Catholic conspirators plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth, and a planned invasion of England has the backing of Rome. Absolved of allegiance to the Queen, whom the Pope has excommunicated, papists in England are persecuted and priests who minister to them are publicly tortured and executed.

Sir Francis Walsingham, chief of the Queen's secret service, maintains a spy network to monitor the activities of Catholics in England and on the continent. Many of his spies are students recruited at Cambridge, and Christopher Marlowe, known as Kit, is one of them.

Kit Marlowe's first assignment is to infiltrate a conspiracy to assassinate the Queen. He wins the trust of the conspirators and is instrumental in exposing them, then witnesses their ghastly execution at Tyburn. Determined to give up the dirty business of spying, Kit returns to Cambridge.

He acquires a patron, Tom Walsingham, cousin of Sir Francis, and begins his meteoric rise as a dramatist.

Through his rising reputation as a dramatist and his connections, Kit becomes a member of circles that include such prominent figures as Sir Walter Raleigh and the so-called School of Night. One evening he meets William Shakespeare and his dark mistress.

But while he enjoys the friendship of some powerful figures, his quick temper, barbed tongue and fearlessly open mind earn him the enmity of others, including someone who plots his assassination.

Horses of the Night is a magisterial work of historical fiction, vividly bringing to life both this turbulent period of history and the multi-faceted life of one of Britain's most revered literary figures.

Praise for Horses of the Night:

"Geoffrey Aggeler's novel captures wonderfully the feeling of his historical period, presents characters that are both engaging and credible, and develops a plot that is as exciting as any contemporary thriller. It is truly a masterful piece of story-telling by a writer fully in command of language and scene."- Leonard Tourney

“Horses of the Night is exciting in the way of great novels: it gives the reader his chance to act without knowing it.” George Backman

"To become, almost unawares, a present contemporary of the Elizabethan glory and terror, is an experience unparalleled in my reading life. With Horses of the Night, Geoff Aggeler brings us to know the actual sensation of breathing, perilously, such rich air. The intensity of his portrait of Kit Marlowe lifts that peril to a dizzying pitch."
--Donald Revell

“A serious account of young Kit Marlowe in his sixteenth century setting in a way that brings the reader right into the action of events and the characters that produce them. Anyone interested in either the main character or the setting--or both--will be well rewarded by reading this work of beautifully rendered historical fiction.” Jay Halio

Geoff Aggeler is the founding editor-writer of Editing With Panache and a veteran writing teacher, an acclaimed novelist, biographer, critic, and creative essayist whose works have received awards and high praise. Horses of the Night won first place in the Mystery Fiction competition at the 2002 Santa Barbara Writers Conference.

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