Lady Isobel Rushford

On Thursday 23 May 1585, Lady Isobel Rushford fell to her death from the top of the Western Tower of Rushford Manor. Murder is suspected and during the course of the subsequent investigation the net of suspicion falls over family, friends, servants and neighbours. Her death has consequences that none of them anticipated and the reader is kept in suspense until the very end as to the motive for her murder and the identity of the killer. The novel is set against the backdrop of the momentous political, religious and economic events of Tudor England in the latter part of Queen Elizabeth's reign. At the end of the sixteenth century England was bubbling with conspiracies to depose Elizabeth and put her Catholic cousin, Mary Stuart, on the throne. The suppression of Roman Catholicism and the relentless hunt for priests, smuggled into England at great risk to all involved, forms part of the atmospheric setting for the story. There was considerable economic hardship, exacerbated by the long-term effects of the dissolution of the monasteries and the Irish wars. Despite the many advances made in science, exploration and the arts, unexplained misfortunes were laid at the doorstep of the most vulnerable members of society: poor, uneducated women, who were accused of witchcraft and punished accordingly. The novel explores these political, religious and economic issues together with the timeless themes of greed, revenge and regret.