Book excerpt: Forty Testoons is his third novel. This is a novel of political intrigue, spies and treason in medieval Newfoundland. The year is 1504 and father Ralph Fletcher, a young priest, is paid forty silver coins called testoons to stay and minister to the winter crew while the summer fleet retu s to England. He becomes swept up in intrigue as the winter crew attempts to depose King Henry VII of England in favor of a Yorkist pretender, Father Ralph's role in the plot becomes clear - he is to sanctify the actions while striving to convert the native Beothuk to Christianity.