The Assassin - a novel by Ronald Blythe - 2004 - Hardback - 288pp - 155 x 233mm - Price £16.95 - ISBN 0-9528839-9-6.

Set in the darkening years before the Civil War, The Assassin, traces the life of John Felton and the fateful events that lead to his murder of the King's favourite, the blasphemous Duke of Buckingham. The novel catches the spirituality and sexuality of its time with startling freshness.

Three young men, one a star, one a star-seeker, one a bookworm, collide in the darkening years before the Civil War. At first they seem to shed a new light on one another, then in their mid-thirties they black-out. Who were they? Diamond -studded paintings identify the star George Villiers as the Duke of Buckingham but the old label "fanatic" fails to illuminate his killer, though we have his soiled name, John Felton. As for Felton's friend Angus Wemyss, he was one of those people who rocket away from earth-bound politics and religious dogma into limitless space, shedding shibboleths as he goes. He begged Felton to accompany him but instead of taking the Milky Way Felton walked to Portsmouth with a knife.