What do you think?
Rate this book
Tournament #1.5
Roger Ascham and the Dead Queen's Command
A special sequel to The Tournament from Australia's favourite novelist and the author of both the Scarecrow and Jack West Jr series.
When her life is threatened by an anonymous assassin, the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth I knows there is only one man she can trust to find the killer before he her unorthodox childhood tutor and mentor, Roger Ascham.
When her life is threatened by an anonymous assassin, the newly crowned Queen Elizabeth I knows there is only one man she can trust to find the killer before he her unorthodox childhood tutor and mentor, Roger Ascham.
65 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 1, 2020
158 people are currently reading
478 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Reilly
90 books6,189 followersBorn in Sydney in 1974, Matthew Reilly was not always a big fan of reading. It was only after he read To Kill A Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies in Year 10 that he realised reading could transport you to another world. Following this revelation, Matthew soon began creating stories of his own and set about writing his first novel, Contest, at the age of 19 while still at university studying law.
Following rejections from all the major publishers, Matthew self-published Contest in 1996, printing 1000 copies. He produced a big-budget-looking novel which he sold into bookshops throughout Sydney, one shop at a time.
In January 1997, a Commissioning Editor for Pan Macmillan Australia walked into Angus & Robertson's Pitt Street Mall store and bought a copy of Contest. The editor tracked Matthew down through his contact details in the front of the book. Interestingly, those original self-published editions of Contest have now become much sought after collectors' items. One recently sold on eBay for $1200!
Matthew Reilly is now the internationally bestselling author of the Scarecrow novels: Ice Station, Area 7, Scarecrow, Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves and the novella Hell Island; the Jack West novels: Seven Ancient Wonders, The Six Sacred Stones, The Five Greatest Warriors, The Four Legendary Kingdoms, and The Three Secret Cities; and the standalone novels Contest, Temple, Hover Car Racer, The Tournament, Troll Mountain, The Great Zoo of China and The Secret Runners of New York.
His books are published in over 20 languages with worldwide sales of over 7 million copies.
Since Seven Ancient Wonders in 2005, Matthew's novels have been the biggest selling new fiction title released in Australia for that year.
Matthew has also written several short stories, including Roger Ascham and the King's Lost Girl, a special free prequel to The Tournament which is available online. Other short stories include Time Tours, The Mine and the hyper-adrenalised romp, Altitude Rush.
He owns and drives a DeLorean DMC-12, the car made famous in the Back to the Future movies. He also has a life-sized Han Solo in carbonite hanging on the wall of his office! When not writing or penning a film script, Matthew can be found on the golf course.
Matthew Reilly is currently living in Los Angeles.
(source: Amazon)
Following rejections from all the major publishers, Matthew self-published Contest in 1996, printing 1000 copies. He produced a big-budget-looking novel which he sold into bookshops throughout Sydney, one shop at a time.
In January 1997, a Commissioning Editor for Pan Macmillan Australia walked into Angus & Robertson's Pitt Street Mall store and bought a copy of Contest. The editor tracked Matthew down through his contact details in the front of the book. Interestingly, those original self-published editions of Contest have now become much sought after collectors' items. One recently sold on eBay for $1200!
Matthew Reilly is now the internationally bestselling author of the Scarecrow novels: Ice Station, Area 7, Scarecrow, Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves and the novella Hell Island; the Jack West novels: Seven Ancient Wonders, The Six Sacred Stones, The Five Greatest Warriors, The Four Legendary Kingdoms, and The Three Secret Cities; and the standalone novels Contest, Temple, Hover Car Racer, The Tournament, Troll Mountain, The Great Zoo of China and The Secret Runners of New York.
His books are published in over 20 languages with worldwide sales of over 7 million copies.
Since Seven Ancient Wonders in 2005, Matthew's novels have been the biggest selling new fiction title released in Australia for that year.
Matthew has also written several short stories, including Roger Ascham and the King's Lost Girl, a special free prequel to The Tournament which is available online. Other short stories include Time Tours, The Mine and the hyper-adrenalised romp, Altitude Rush.
He owns and drives a DeLorean DMC-12, the car made famous in the Back to the Future movies. He also has a life-sized Han Solo in carbonite hanging on the wall of his office! When not writing or penning a film script, Matthew can be found on the golf course.
Matthew Reilly is currently living in Los Angeles.
(source: Amazon)
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
January 6, 2023
Elizabeth I has just ascended the throne of England. But someone’s planning to assassinate her. The killer’s already sent her his calling card in advance. The queen only has a day left to live, unless someone can stop the killer. She doesn’t know who to trust, not even in her own palace. There’s only one person she can trust: her former teacher, Roger Ascham.
This is a very short and simple historical mystery story that is set after Matthew Reilly’s standalone novel, The Tournament. The plot is very straight forward and a bit predictable. The best thing about this story however is without a doubt the chance us readers get to reconnect with the loveable character of Roger Ascham.
This is a very short and simple historical mystery story that is set after Matthew Reilly’s standalone novel, The Tournament. The plot is very straight forward and a bit predictable. The best thing about this story however is without a doubt the chance us readers get to reconnect with the loveable character of Roger Ascham.
April 25, 2020
Matthew Reilly, who is one of my favourite authors, has released this free short story on his website as a gift to his fans during the Covid-19 pandemic. It’s a sequel to his standalone historical fiction novel, The Tournament, published in 2014, which was about the tutor of a teenage girl travelling to Constantinople for a chess tournament. The girl is of course the future Elizabeth I and this brief story, is set thirteen years later, when she has just been crowned Queen.
Summoned to the palace by his former pupil, Elizabeth explains that an assassination threat has been made, and only he can prevent it, but why has the killer sent advance warning in the form of a child’s doll?
Reilly is best known for his breakneck paced action thrillers, but fundamentally a brilliant storyteller can write in most genres, and I remember very much enjoying The Tournament and hoping that there might be further books about Roger. There is one prequel short story but each tale is independent of the others. The main disappointment of this was how short it was - the ebook looked like it was 76 pages, which would be a respectable length, but it’s all over in half that, with the rest being an excerpt from The Tournament and promotions for his other books. There were also quite a lot of typos.
However, it’s free, it’s fun and it provided twenty odd minutes of distraction which during lockdown is not to be sneezed at! I’m still hoping this might be a bridge to another full book...
Summoned to the palace by his former pupil, Elizabeth explains that an assassination threat has been made, and only he can prevent it, but why has the killer sent advance warning in the form of a child’s doll?
Reilly is best known for his breakneck paced action thrillers, but fundamentally a brilliant storyteller can write in most genres, and I remember very much enjoying The Tournament and hoping that there might be further books about Roger. There is one prequel short story but each tale is independent of the others. The main disappointment of this was how short it was - the ebook looked like it was 76 pages, which would be a respectable length, but it’s all over in half that, with the rest being an excerpt from The Tournament and promotions for his other books. There were also quite a lot of typos.
However, it’s free, it’s fun and it provided twenty odd minutes of distraction which during lockdown is not to be sneezed at! I’m still hoping this might be a bridge to another full book...
April 3, 2020
This is more of a gratuitous story than anything groundbreaking - it's just a small catch up with an old friend.
It's a simple story set after The Tournament but the events are unrelated so you can read this without having first read The Tournament. That being said, most of the joy of this story comes from reuniting with Roger Ascham, so if you haven't met him yet this will be a bit underwhelming.
Basically, new queen Elizabeth has been threatened by an assassin, so she calls in Roger to find the culprit.
There's no real mystery, so it all plays out nice and fast (it is a novella, after all) and has a solid resolution. It's not fantastic and mind-blowing, but it's not terrible, either. It was decent.
I enjoyed it, being already familiar with the main character, but others might find it a little underwhelming. Still, it's a freebie from the author during a tough time when a lot of us are turning to our books more than usual, so I really appreciated it.
You can get your own copy here: http://matthewreilly.com/
It's a simple story set after The Tournament but the events are unrelated so you can read this without having first read The Tournament. That being said, most of the joy of this story comes from reuniting with Roger Ascham, so if you haven't met him yet this will be a bit underwhelming.
Basically, new queen Elizabeth has been threatened by an assassin, so she calls in Roger to find the culprit.
There's no real mystery, so it all plays out nice and fast (it is a novella, after all) and has a solid resolution. It's not fantastic and mind-blowing, but it's not terrible, either. It was decent.
I enjoyed it, being already familiar with the main character, but others might find it a little underwhelming. Still, it's a freebie from the author during a tough time when a lot of us are turning to our books more than usual, so I really appreciated it.
You can get your own copy here: http://matthewreilly.com/
April 1, 2020
A cute short story sequel to Reilly's brilliant standalone, The Tournament. The Tournament is perhaps my favourite of his novels, so I loved this fun addition to its world and getting to read about the characters again.
December 14, 2024
It was a fun read, but it was just too short. There was no mystery or suspense that Reilly does so well.
April 8, 2020
Solid warm writing with a character you could spend more time with. The story was pretty simple. Catching a potential assassin. A little predictable but it was a novella so cant be overly complicated. Good fun
June 12, 2020
This is a short ripping yarn.
April 3, 2020
What a pleasant surprise it was to see this pop up on kindle out of nowhere, a short story by one of my favourite authors in these harrowing times put a smile on my face.
Yes it's short but Matthew does it again, returns to an endearing character and has a blast.
Thank you Matthew you are a star.
Yes it's short but Matthew does it again, returns to an endearing character and has a blast.
Thank you Matthew you are a star.
April 5, 2020
A delightful short story from a master story teller. Simply, gallops along and the perfect twenty minute read. Just what is needed.
September 26, 2022
Even though this is novella-sized, it has the content and punch of a novel!!
April 1, 2020
3.5 🌟
It was fast paced and an easy read neither too gory (mild) and the suspense was pretty much predictable... Overall, is a good short story to pick up if you hit a reading slump! =)
It was fast paced and an easy read neither too gory (mild) and the suspense was pretty much predictable... Overall, is a good short story to pick up if you hit a reading slump! =)
April 25, 2020
A quick short to fill the time between novels. Neither complicated nor boring, just a straightforward tale.
April 12, 2020
These are tough times and it's lovely that Matthew took the time to produce a little ditty for his peeps. This is a quick story that takes less than 30 minutes to read. Roger Ascham is summoned by the newly anointed Queen Elizabeth I to perform a very important assignment that needs to be completed in the next 24 hours otherwise there will be dire consequences for the Queen.
Will Ascham solve the mystery or will the Queen suffer the consequences of him failing?
Written in his usual no-fuss, fast paced style, it's an easy read not having the complexity of his typical stories. But, hey, it's free, and every Reilly fan should download it.
Will Ascham solve the mystery or will the Queen suffer the consequences of him failing?
Written in his usual no-fuss, fast paced style, it's an easy read not having the complexity of his typical stories. But, hey, it's free, and every Reilly fan should download it.
Want to read
February 12, 2021I have just read The Two Lost Mountains and this book is mentioned in the questions and answers section at the end of the book. I have already read Roger Ascham and the King’s Lost Girl, which was really good. How can I download or access this book to read. I have managed to download and read the short story of Jack West jr and the Chinese Splashdown but cannot find Roger Ascham and the Dead Queen’s Command to download here in the UK.
April 15, 2020
A simple and linear murder mystery. Not as complicated as a full-blown novel, with all the twist and turns. It was entertaining enough, although it lacked sufficient suspense. The perpetrator was revealed a little too early, I believe. It's always good to do the unmasking right at the end. I guess it had to be written this way, as a short story.
Highly recommended for all Matthew Reilly fans.
Highly recommended for all Matthew Reilly fans.
February 13, 2021
Elizabeth has received a voodoo doll likeness of herself with an arrow through it’s chest. Roger is given the task of finding and stopping the assassin in twenty four hours or the Queen will die the same way....https://chroniclesoftania.wordpress.c...
March 2, 2021
Short sequel to Reilly’s The Tournament. A few months after Bess has become Queen Elizabeth. Ascham is asked to solve a series of murders that threaten the queen herself.
It’s good. Anything more with this character is good. But again, it’s short. Shorter even than the prequel. But I liked it.
It’s good. Anything more with this character is good. But again, it’s short. Shorter even than the prequel. But I liked it.
May 29, 2021
Once again Matthew Reilly has turned out an interesting story around one of his more interesting and compelling characters. Roger Ascham.
Any information concerning the story and characters would be a spoiler, so, all i will say is that if you enjoyed 'The Tournament', then you will enjoy this pleasant page turner.
Any information concerning the story and characters would be a spoiler, so, all i will say is that if you enjoyed 'The Tournament', then you will enjoy this pleasant page turner.
January 5, 2024
Who does the queen turn to when her life is threatened by a lone assassin's threat?
Her childhood mentor, without a doubt.
A sequel to the Tournament which displayed Roger Ascham's powers in action, this is a very short story. The parameters of the story are known and the plot moves to a successful conclusion.
Gripping.
Her childhood mentor, without a doubt.
A sequel to the Tournament which displayed Roger Ascham's powers in action, this is a very short story. The parameters of the story are known and the plot moves to a successful conclusion.
Gripping.
April 5, 2020
This was a fun half hour read. Nothing complicated about the mystery, no twists, just an amusing short story fitting into the world of one of Reilly’s previous books. I like the character of Ascham in the Tournament (& the other short story), so I enjoyed this little entertainment
April 29, 2020
That was a very interesting short read! But with a predictable storyline and ending. But still a very interesting read that makes me want to read the actual series now! Sigh. So many books, so little time.
May 10, 2020
Roger Ascham, Queen Elizabeth’s tutor is tasked with protecting her . Queen Mary, her sister is dead. A Catholic, Elizabeth a Protestant. An attempt will be made on her life. Queen Mary’s last command to her champion archer. A very fast moving and entertaining read!!
June 26, 2020
Nice novelette featuring a character from his great book The Tournament. Too bad the shortness of the story did not provide any mystery but enjoyed revisiting the scenery of this period. There is another book called Roger Ascham and the King's Lost Girl on Kindle but ONLY available for Amazon subscribers in the United Kingdom but Amazon shows it has it on audio. QUERY - has any one been able to obtain a copy - if so where?
September 19, 2020
I’m usually not one to read these short stories
s or 1.5 books, but I am such a fan of this author. I will read just about anything that he writes and always enjoy them. I just wished that he would write faster !!!
s or 1.5 books, but I am such a fan of this author. I will read just about anything that he writes and always enjoy them. I just wished that he would write faster !!!
April 2, 2020
Nice quick read!
April 2, 2020
Short and sweet :) And easy read without needing to know the characters or background story.
April 3, 2020
Nice little quick read to get reaccustomed with old characters. Nothing special though and very predicable.
April 4, 2020
Amazing short story!
April 13, 2020
Too short! But I guess that's what you get for reading a short story...
April 15, 2020
Kort maar spannend!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews