The Trade Secret

A swashbuckling, rolicking tale of espionage, intrigue, and adventure, that also smartly investigates the pervasive forces of corporations and capitalism

Elizabethean England is a Golden Age of trade and art; merchants and poets from across the world pack London’s streets. There’s a new commodity people need—oil. And young Nat Bramble knows just where to get it. Nat and Darius Nouredini, a poet in a wrestler’s body, set off in search of the secret oil well under the abandoned Temple of Mithras in Persia. But their venture lights a trail of fire which will follow Nat all the way back to England, where he becomes caught in the crossfire of a war between the crown and the first corporations of London.

Robert Newman is an author, a comedian, and an activist. He was the first comedian to sell out Wembley Stadium, and is the author of three previous novels, including The Fountain at the Center of the World.