England was undergoing a shift during the reign of Henry VIII. The king was sick and tired of the pope not giving him the divorce he so desired so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, so he wanted to split from the papacy. Obviously, some opposed his break from Rome and used different methods to stop what they considered madness. Take, for example, Elizabeth Barton, known as the Holy Maid of Kent, for her prophecies tied to the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Many may not know her name, but centuries later, a book of her prophecies will change the course of Dr. Alison Sage’s life and those who attended a special Consortium. What secrets does this book hold, and can Alison survive the cutthroat world of academia? Jennifer N. Brown tells the tale of these two women, separated by centuries, and of a book that unites them in her first novel, “The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton.”

I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press and Net Galley for sending me a copy of this novel. What caught my eye about this novel was the mention of Elizabeth Barton. I wanted to know more about Elizabeth Barton herself, as she is merely a footnote in other novels and nonfiction books. I wanted to see how Brown would approach her story with a modern tale.

We begin with Elizabeth Barton, an orphan who was a servant at the Cobb farm. One day, she fell ill with a fever and had her prophecy that came true. It attracted the attention of powerful men like Bishop Fisher, who allowed Elizabeth to enter St. Sepulchre’s Priory under the supervision of Prioress Philippa Jonys and her spiritual advisor, Edward Bocking. Bocking would write down Barton’s visions, but there was one that became too dangerous, the vision of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in hell if they married each other. The king did not take kindly to this prophecy, and so Barton and Bocking were killed and her books destroyed. Prioress Philippa and Agnes Vale worked hard to protect their memory.

In the modern age, we are introduced to Dr. Alison Sage, a historian, who recently found one of Barton’s books, which she presents at a medieval conference. It attracts the attention of Roger Shefield, who invites Alison to the Codex Consortium at Vale House Manor. There she runs into someone from her past, Westley, who goes from enemies to something more. To add to the drama, there is a treasure hunt about the Elizabeth Barton book and a murder mystery.

While I appreciate the amount of effort Brown put into this novel, I feel like she was throwing a lot of ideas at this book and not everything worked, especially having a murder mystery so late in the book. I feel like the modern storyline was a tad weaker than the 16th-century story. Overall, it was a thought-provoking read that shed a bit of light on the life and legacy of Elizabeth Barton. If you want a novel about a lesser-known figure in Tudor history with a modern twist, I recommend you read “The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton” by Jennifer N. Brown.