David Mark, Anatomy of a Heretic (Head of Zeus 2022)
London 1628. Gentleman assassin Nicolaes de Pelgrom aka Wiebbe Hayes is the devoted nephew of George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, darling of King James. He is engaged by the widow Mariam Towerson to travel to the Indies to exact revenge for the murder of her husband.
On the same journey is apothecary Jeronimus Cornelisz, hired in Amsterdam to escort precious cargo. Cornelisz has just murdered someone with a poisoned letter and is rumoured to be under the influence of the Rosicrucian Torrentius.
Also aboard the Batavia is the beautiful Lucretia Jansz and her maid Zwaantie, who is under Cornelisz’s influence.
The commander of the ship is Francisco Pelsaert, constantly at odds with the skipper Ariaen Jacobsz. The mutinous mood of the crew and the enmity between the men in charge provide the perfect fodder for the nefarious schemes of Cornelisz.
As the two assassins clash, so do their respective missions. The ship is wrecked on the reefs of the Abrolhos Islands (now called Batavia’s Graveyard or Beacon Island), and the fateful voyage becomes the stuff of history, the dark, carnal, bloodthirsty details with which I won’t spoil you.
The author gives little for free, jumping straight into gorgeous and grotesque scenes with no backstory, which makes the first few chapters hard reading, but it’s worth it once you get going. The writing is sumptuous and decadent, including some truly inspired curse words—e.g., ‘shit-spangled daughters of flux-cunnied curs’.
I felt certain that an evil character like Cornelisz would not prove to be well rounded, but even he becomes briefly human in the face of cataclysm.
This lush masterpiece lives in the underbelly of a vibrant period when unscrupulous adventurers clawed for profit from the New World.
This review was written for Historical Novels Review.
Susie Helme 
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