There's a central scene in Christie Dickason's latest novel where Guido (Guy) Fawkes is talking to Francis Quoynt, the Firemaster - a man skilled with explosives who is also a spy for King James.

Fawkes says he intends to die a martyr's death, staying in the damp cellar beneath the Houses of Parliament with his barrels of gunpowder to make sure they explode. "It's far easier to choose a swift, glorious death," he tells his companion. "And then... who knows? At worst, I'll be remembered as a Catholic martyr. At best, in time, I could be made Saint Guido when England once again embraces Rome."

It was, as we all know now, to be the 'at worst'. Dickason's Fawkes doesn't know that, of course. He's a vivid, violent, courageous and fanatical man, who remains defiant to the last. Even so, he is not the central character in Dickason's enjoyable historical spy story. That honour goes to Francis Quoynt, the reluctant spy being used by Robert Cecil, King James' devious secretary of state, to flush out the conspirators. Quoynt's love affair with Kate Peach, the Roman Catholic glovemaker, lights up the page in what is an enjoyable historical thriller about deception, treachery and the collision of faiths.

Updated: 10:44 Saturday, October 22, 2005