The Pretender

The sequel to Astraea, The Pretender is the second part of Jane Stevenson's trilogy. Balthasar van Overmeer is the son of the secret marriage between Eliabeth of Bohemia, daughter of James I, and an exiled African prince. We see him first as a young medical student in Holland, then as a doctor in Middleburg, where he becomes involved with Aphra Behn, an English intelligence agent and later a playwright, in Restoration London and in the developing colonial society of Barbados. As he matures he is forced to come to terms with his peculiar upbringing and to explore his strange and powerful heritage, both black and white.