The Realm Invisible

A spellbinding Elizabethan historical fantasy from the Sunday Times bestselling author of THE EMBROIDERED BOOK

From SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of The Embroidered Book and The Valkyrie comes a thrilling historical fantasy of secret agents, sorcerers, and the Spanish armada set in the court of Queen Elizabeth I.

From SUNDAY TIMES bestselling author of The Embroidered Book and The Valkyrie comes a thrilling historical fantasy of secret agents, sorcerers, and the Spanish armada set in the court of Queen Elizabeth I.

A Wounded King. A Virgin Queen.

Under cover as an art dealer, Susanna Holm works for Queen Elizabeth I’s spymaster, Francis Walsingham.

A mystical message in a sealed painting reveals – for a moment – a veiled figure, an emissary from a mystical world…

Searching for answers from the occultist John Dee, Susanna meets Ambrose Wynne, who tells her the mystical world is the Realm Invisible, ruled over by the Wounded King. It is the world of ideas, of perfect concepts, which in themselves have a dangerous power.

Is Walsingham playing a double game, using the power of the Realm to manipulate Spain into going to war with England?

An armada is on its way; and so is a reckoning.

Praise for Kate Heartfield

‘Spellbinding’ JJA Harwood

'This richly detailed, character-driven story renders epic mythological battles on a human scale' Publishers Weekly

‘An entertaining and dark read’ Stylist

‘An absorbing novel’ Guardian

‘Beautifully written’ Elizabeth Chadwick