02427cam a2200373 i 4500 1164265606 TxAuBib 20140324120000.0 130723s2014||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2013025522 9780062240323 hardcover $25.99 0062240323 hardcover $25.99 (OCoLC)853664406 DLC eng rda DLC YDX YDXCP BTCTA BDX DYJ IEP OCP JQM COO ABG CDX BKL TxAuBib rda Holsinger, Bruce W. A burnable book / Bruce Holsinger. First edition. New York : William Morrow, [2014] ix, 444 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier London, 1385. Surrounded by ruthless courtiers--including his powerful uncle, John of Gaunt, and Gaunt's artful mistress, Katherine Swynford--England's young, still untested king, Richard II, is in mortal peril, and the danger is only beginning. Songs are heard across London--catchy verses said to originate from an ancient book that prophesies the end of England's kings--and among the book's predictions is Richard's assassination. Only a few powerful men know that the cryptic lines derive from a "burnable book," a seditious work that threatens the stability of the realm. To find the manuscript, wily bureaucrat Geoffrey Chaucer turns to fellow poet John Gower, a professional trader in information with connections high and low. Gower discovers that the book and incriminating evidence about its author have fallen into the unwitting hands of innocents, who will be drawn into a labyrinthine conspiracy that reaches from the king's court to London's slums and stews--and potentially implicates his own son. As the intrigue deepens, it becomes clear that Gower, a man with secrets of his own, may be the last hope to save a king from a terrible fate. 20140508. Chaucer, Geoffrey 1400 Fiction. Gower, John 1325?-1408 Fiction. Books and reading Fiction. Courts and courtiers Fiction. Betrayal Fiction. London (England) History To 1500 Fiction. Historical fiction. Suspense fiction. TXKIP