The King at the Edge of the World

January 6, 2020
All the world’s a stage, and spies are the most committed players, in Philipp’s winning latest (after The Tragedy of Arthur). In 1591, a Turkish doctor, Mahmoud Ezzedine, accompanies a diplomatic Ottoman mission to Queen Elizabeth’s court in England, a “far-off, sunless, primitive, sodden, heathen kingdom at the far cliffside edge of the civilized earth.” A guileless scholar surrounded by schemers, he becomes the queen’s pawn. A decade later, a spy and actor named Geoffrey Belloc recruits the doctor—still languishing in England and having outwardly converted to Christianity—to befriend the “canny James the Scot,” the heir to the throne who many in Elizabeth’s Protestant court fear is secretly Catholic. Ezzedine agrees to engage James in a discussion of theology to determine the future monarch’s true religious allegiance, while Belloc schemes a dastardly alternative to the plan Ezzedine agrees to. So begins a chess game, literal and figurative, in which the doctor, having infiltrated the Scotsman’s Edinburgh circle, attempts to discern James’s true faith through increasingly drastic, and potentially fatal, means. While the expository dialogue occasionally feels stilted, Phillips masterfully renders the period and packs the narrative with surprising twists. This clever, serpentine novel recalls the historical dramas of Hilary Mantel and the thrillers of John le Carré, and will reverberate in readers’ minds.

January 15, 2020
The first novel in nine years from Phillips (The Tragedy of Arthur, 2011, etc.) is another bravura performance: a tale of espionage and theological intrigue set in Elizabethan England. The book begins with a Turkish expedition in 1591 to England, "a far-off, sunless, primitive, sodden, heathen kingdom at the far cliffside edge of the civilized earth." One of the delegation's reluctant conscripts is Mahmoud Ezzedine, the sultan's personal physician, who leaves behind a comfortable life and a beloved wife and son. But at sojourn's end, Ezzedine--who's become friendly with a British physician/naturalist and familiar with British irony and raillery--makes a remark that, overheard, allows a conniving rival to trap him; if reported to the sultan, the jest would result in the doctor's execution. So Ezzedine is left in England as a "gift" to Elizabeth's court, and when he saves a nobleman who suffers a public seizure, he is passed along--regifted--to the epileptic. Ten years pass; Ezzedine, now "Matthew Thatcher," has adapted to his fate by converting to Christianity and by expunging--to the greatest extent possible--all memory of his homeland and former happiness. Meanwhile, Queen Elizabeth is dying, heirless, and the leading candidate for the throne is King James VI of Scotland. But James' bona fides as a Protestant--his parents were Catholic, as is his wife, and rumors abound of his secret papism--are in doubt, which could reignite the long sectarian bloodbath recently ended. Who better to peel the theological onion that is James, thinks the cunning spymaster Geoffrey Belloc, than the only Muslim in the empire? And so Ezzedine/Thatcher is regifted again, this time to the Scottish king. Phillips' incorporation of history--including an entertaining side plot about Elizabethan theater--shows the sure hand and psychological acuity he is known for. One is reminded of Hilary Mantel's magisterial Wolf Hall but perhaps more pointedly of Graham Greene's novels, which also often center on theology and spycraft and often feature a protagonist exiled, like Ezzedine, to some seedy outpost of foreignness and amorality. A rare combination of literary finesse and quick-paced plot--and another triumph from the versatile Phillips.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2020
On matters of religion, Elizabeth I famously said she didn't desire to make windows into men's souls. To preserve her Protestant realm and prevent future bloodshed, however, her intelligencers devise a scheme to do exactly that to her likely successor, Scotland's James VI. In Phillips' (The Tragedy of Arthur, 2011) inventively multilayered novel, their chosen agent, Mahmoud Ezzedine, is a Muslim physician in the Ottoman ambassador's contingent who was left behind in bleak England. In 1601, with Elizabeth old and ailing, Ezzedine is approached with a delicate proposal: determine whether James is at heart Protestant or Catholic, and he can rejoin his wife and son in Constantinople. Getting close to the Scots king isn't easy, though. Phillips crafts a believable late-Elizabethan backdrop laced with intrigue and juxtaposes it with a deep dive into the emotions of an intelligent man in exile from country, family, even a sense of hope. Evoked in exquisite language full of subtle shadings and theatrical references, the plot grows suspenseful, and readers will appreciate how it lets them grasp on their own where it leads.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Readers will flock to the latest from esteemed best-seller Phillips, whose signature literary prowess and nimble imagination remain ascendant.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

Starred review from February 1, 2020

In the twilight of Queen Elizabeth's long reign, the court is abuzz with concern about the succession. The queen's handlers are especially determined to find out whether the heir apparent, James VI of Scotland, is a Protestant. Or is he really a Catholic at heart who will try to reestablish the "truth faith" once upon the throne, with all the mayhem that would entail for Britain? Enter Matthew Thatcher, alias Mahmoud Ezzedine, a physician from the sultan of Constantinople attending to the ailing queen and left behind when his fellow diplomats departed. Through the machinations of influential members of the court, Thatcher is eventually sent north to discover James's true faith, which he does by drawing on his vast knowledge of medicinal remedies when treating the king. VERDICT The indefatigably imaginative Phillips, whose works range from Prague, about Budapest, to The Tragedy of Arthur, which contains a Shakespearean play written by Phillips, offers historical fiction with aching contemporary overtones. Highly recommended, especially for those knowledgeable about the period and for anyone who enjoys a truly original yarn. [See Prepub Alert, 7/21/19.]--Edward Cone, New York

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2019

In acclaimed titles ranging from Prague to The Tragedy of Arthur, Phillips shows that he never writes the same book twice. Here he takes us to 1601 England. Queen Elizabeth is dying, and King James VI of Scotland looks to be the most likely heir, but some of Elizabeth's advisers doubt his commitment to Protestantism. Among them is Geoffrey Belloc, who enlists the help of Mahmoud Ezzedine, a Muslim physician left behind when representatives of the Ottoman Empire last came calling. Working undercover to assess James's beliefs, Mahmoud is hoping he'll win a way back to his family.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.