Red Ned Bedwell is an apprentice lawyer in Tudor London. He’s trying to fatten his purse by running the Christmas Revels for his fellow clerks, but he’s entrusted with minding a young innocent and keeping him from harm and temptation. The innocent is not nearly as naïve as his over­bear­ing mother believes and Ned must follow his trail through the stews of London.

The book is good at recreating the daily life of Tudor London in 1529 as the Re­for­ma­tion is developing under Henry VIII. The plot, alas, is rather thin.