Glorianas Torch: A Novel by Patricia
Finney
"In Their Ignorance These Ghosts Have Made Of Their Kindly God A Most Terrible
Monster."
The year is 1587. The Spanish are preparing to launch the Armada
against the English and Queen Elizabeth. Ex-soldier David Becket, now
responsible for the Queens Ordnance discovers that large quantities of
gunpowder are going astray. Can someone in the heart of the English
government be selling it to the Spanish? Unaccountably he is plagued by
vivid dreams of England invaded, an alternative story where the Armada is
victorious. Patricia Finneys brilliant reworking of the Armada legend is an
imaginative tour de force. Thrilling, intricate, and inspiring, this is a tale of
courage, of love, and, ultimately, redemption.
Personal Review: Glorianas Torch: A Novel by Patricia Finney

The Spanish Armada is ready to strike at the Queen of England, King
Phillip of Spain seeking to conquer by force what he could not accomplish
in marriage. Elizabeth's spies have done their best, enduring great dangers
in foreign ports to bring critical information to defeat the Spanish forces.
One critical clue remains unknown, the key to success or failure, the secret
of the "Miracle of Beauty", the most carefully guarded element of the
Spanish plan. Calling on those who have come to her aid in another
dangerous adventure that threatened the crown, Elizabeth gathers her
confidants: Tomasina, the Queen's Fool; David Beckett, once tortured by
the Inquisition and mistakenly by the Queen's own men; Simon Anriques, a
Jewish merchant-spy loyal to the Queen; Rebecca, Simons' wife who will
go to any length to save her husband's life; and Merula, an African slave of
extraordinary talents, her heart as large as her powerful body.
The enemy drawing nearer by the day, a bold plan is put in place to gain
knowledge of the Miracle of Beauty and an effort to recover Simon, who
has been taken by the Inquisition while in port, and Merula's son, sold into
slavery before his mother could save him. At the crux of the enterprise are
the guns and ordnance to turn the firearms into killing machines. All these
threads are woven into an intricate plot that brings the threat of war to the
very shores of England. Finney tackles her story from every perspective,
her characters fulfilling their varied destinies, the Queen, David Beckett,
broken in the past but dreaming of a more noble future, Merula,
acquiescing to the demands of the "white ghosts" while searching for her
son, Edward Dormer, a seminarian turned assassin, Joseph Pasquale, an
Inquisitor with spiritual pretensions and demons of his own and Simon
Anriques, who endures the Inquisitor's torture and the hardships of
imprisonment as a galley slave in hopes of reuniting with his wife. Even
Suleiman, the Padron of the galley salves, is humanized as he whips his
crew into shape in the filthy, death-laden holds of the galleons where
slaves are worked to death.
The author goes beyond the simple retelling of an historical event, her
characters defined by personal ambitions and a rigid society, the carefully
layered classes from noble to slave that turn the great wheel of the
kingdoms, from heroes to cowards, aristocrat to peasant, a fascinating
cross-section of history at a pivotal time on the world stage. Finney puts
some fine satirical points on individual characters, particularly the righteous
Spanish priests who defend their purity with rabid zeal to disguise the
concupiscence that torments them, clutching denial as desperately as their
hair shirts and prayer books. Balancing the converging events and
individuals, Finney tosses a great salad of 16th century religious conflict,
intrigues, traitors, scoundrels and fanatics, all headed toward a climactic
ending that will either bring Elizabeth's destruction or her triumph. There is
always a contemporary message in history and Gloriana's Torch is no
exception, Finney's tale inspired and beautifully crafted. Luan Gaines/
2006.

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