{"product_id":"the-cipher-room-paperback","title":"The Cipher Room - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eWilliam M. Aitken\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEngland, 1586. A queen is imprisoned. A conspiracy is forming. And somewhere in the secret correspondence crossing the country lies the evidence that could send Mary, Queen of Scots to the scaffold.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThomas Phelippes is a scholar, linguist and gifted cryptanalyst whose extraordinary ability to break codes has brought him to the attention of Sir Francis Walsingham, Elizabeth I's formidable spymaster. Drawn from the quiet world of scholarship into the emerging intelligence service of Tudor England, Phelippes finds himself at the centre of one of the most dangerous political struggles of Elizabeth's reign.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt Chartley Hall, the imprisoned Mary Stuart believes she has found a secure means of communicating with her supporters. Letters are concealed, smuggled in beer barrels and protected by elaborate ciphers, while Anthony Babington and his fellow conspirators dream of freeing the Scottish queen, assassinating Elizabeth and restoring Catholic rule to England.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut Walsingham is watching.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWorking from a locked chamber above Chartley Hall, Phelippes intercepts Mary's secret correspondence and patiently begins to unravel it. Every cipher broken exposes another connection; every decoded letter draws the conspirators closer to discovery. Yet intelligence is not simply a matter of finding the truth. When Phelippes is ordered to alter a letter by adding a single forged passage designed to expose the men behind the conspiracy, the boundary between deciphering evidence and creating it begins to disappear.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIf Mary answers, she may condemn herself.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBased on the real events of the \u003cstrong\u003eBabington Plot of 1586\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Cipher Room\u003c\/em\u003e is a historical espionage thriller about codebreaking, surveillance, deception and the birth of organised intelligence in Elizabethan England. Bringing together Thomas Phelippes, Francis Walsingham, Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I, it explores the hidden machinery behind one of the defining political conspiracies of the Tudor age-and the moral price paid by the people who operated it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor readers of \u003cstrong\u003eRobert Harris, C. J. Sansom and S. J. Parris\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Cipher Room\u003c\/em\u003e combines meticulously grounded Tudor history with political intrigue, cryptography, secret correspondence and the darker world of Elizabethan espionage.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEvery line a lie. Every seal a weapon.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 704\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.55 x 8.5 x 5.5 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e August 24, 2026\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67972640964915,"sku":"9781919209326","price":38.3,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0300\/5595\/6612\/files\/fISQq5I10j9781919209326.webp?v=1794430518","url":"https:\/\/www.vysn.com\/en-ca\/products\/the-cipher-room-paperback","provider":"VYSN","version":"1.0","type":"link"}