When we think of Elizabethan England, we tend to think of the Golden Age of England. A time of discoveries and for the arts to flourish under the Virgin Queen, Elizabeth I. However, there is a darker side. It was also a time of espionage, fears of invasions from other countries, and the hatred between Catholics and Protestants. The dangers of the Elizabethan underworld have reached the queen, as there is an attempt on her life. Can Jack, the son of a crime boss, change his life and find the culprit before they find him, or will he be betrayed by those he calls his friends? Amie McNee explores the seedy underworld of Elizabethan England in her novel, “To Kill a Queen.”
I would like to thank Crooked Lane Books and Net Galley for sending me a copy of this novel. I am a sucker for a good historical mystery, and if it is set in Tudor England, even better. I read the premise of this novel and decided to give McNee a try.
The year is 1579, and Queen Elizabeth I is entertaining her final suitor, the Duke of Anjou. The city is all abuzz with rumors of wedding bells. Everyone except Jack, a young coroner apprentice, who is the son of a crime boss. Jack is helping the Justice of the Peace, Ben, and his mentor, coroner Damian, try to solve a case of a wife beaten to death by her husband. It is a pretty open and shut case, so Jack was surprised to receive another case so soon. A soldier died protecting the queen from an assassin. Now, Jack, Ben, and Damian must find the assassin before it’s too late.
It seems like your typical murder case set in a period setting, but that’s where McNee mixes things up. We get to meet Jack’s father, Axe, the crime boss, and we find out that Jack is not their real identity. Not many know Jack’s true identity, except for his lover Jenny and Damian. Jack’s friend Harry is a common resident of Bedlam, but he is now out, and Jack has to take care of him. When associates close to Jack end up being killed, there is a sense of urgency that Jack has to find the murderer before they find Jack. There are a lot of twists and turns, and the reveal of the whodunnit was shocking, but the conclusion of the book did not fit well with the tone of the rest of the book.
Overall, it was a decent novel, even though it felt more Oliver Twist than Tudor. It was nice to see the typical Tudors step to the side so that we can focus on other stories in Elizabethan London. If you want a detective novel with an unlikely protagonist, filled with twists and turns, and set during the Tudor age, I recommend you read “To Kill a Queen” by Amie McNee.
The daughters of Isabel of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon lived very interesting lives. Of course, we know what happened to Katherine of Aragon, but her elder sister, Juana, has her own tragic tale. She was known as Juana the Mad because the rumors were that when her husband, Philip the Handsome, died, she carried her coffin around for months and would not let him be buried. Was Juana truly mad, or was it all a ruse by powerful men to steal her lands and titles? Lynn Cullen explores Juana of Castile’s life in her novel, “Reign of Madness.”
Stonehenge, a marvel of the ancient world that still stands centuries after it was built. It has been the center of mystery and wonder for all who gaze upon it. A gigantic monolithic structure, whose purpose has been a source of discussion since its origins, but that raises another quandary: who were the people who built such an impressive landmark? This single question presents a grand opportunity for historical fiction writers as we don’t have many written records for this period of time, which means authors have room to play. Ken Follett took on the daunting task of telling the tales of those who built this imposing monument in his latest novel, “Circle of Days.”
Have you ever wondered what it might be like for a historical fiction writer during their writing process? How do they balance both their own lives and the lives of their characters? While we can read author interviews to find out what goes on in an author’s mind, why not take a fun twist of a historical fiction author writing about a historical fiction writer writing her first historical fiction novel? Meet Lucy Ellis, a new writer who is writing her first novel about the death of Amy Robsart while recovering from cancer and going through a divorce. Can Lucy finish her novel about Amy Robsart before her life and her health come crashing down? Wendy J. Dunn tells the tale of two women betrayed in her latest novel, “Shades of Yellow.”
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There’s nothing like a quest to keep a man going, even on the brink of death, but in the case of Uhtred of Bebbanburg, he has several quests. His main goal is to reclaim his birthright, Bebbanburg, but he also wants to help fulfill Alfred’s dream of uniting the kingdoms to create England. However, life can present even more challenges, and Uhtred knows this all too well. Uhtred not only has to save a royal heir and his daughter, but he also must find the sword that wounded him and place a woman on a throne to rule in a time when women were seen rather than heard. It’s a lot to do, but if anyone is up to the task, it is Uhtred of Bebbanburg. The question is, will he survive? Bernard Cornwell brings us another action-packed novel full of adventures in book 8 of the Saxon Stories series, “The Empty Throne.”
The Plantagenets, one of England’s most dynamic dynasties, were always in the middle of some sort of conflict. Whether they were fighting foreign adversaries, their own people, or their own family, it felt like the Plantagenets were always getting into some sort of trouble. And there was one king who knew how to use the weaknesses of the kings of England to his advantage. He was King Philip II of France, also known as Philip Augustus. He had to deal with four different Plantagenet kings and had a strategy for each one of them. Just what were Philip II’s strategies, and how did his reign affect English/French relationships as a whole? These questions are answered in Catherine Hanley’s book, “Nemesis: Medieval England’s Greatest Enemy.”
One would assume that, since England is an island nation, its navy has been its strength since its foundation. That, however, was not always the case. While there were naval battles during the Middle Ages, it was not a navy like we know today. The concept of the Royal Navy was founded during the time of the Tudors, especially under the reign of Henry VIII. So, how did Henry VIII turn a navy from 7 ships to over fifty ships that could stand with other European navies? Geoffrey Moorhouse examines the creation of the English navy in his book, “Great Harry’s Navy: How Henry VIII Gave England Sea Power.”
Sixteenth-century England was a time of great change. There were religious changes as the crown passed from one member of the Tudor family to another. Wars and illnesses like the plague and the sweating sickness were rampant. However, this was also a time of an explosion of the arts, particularly of the theatre. We see men like William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson rise from obscurity to write plays that would propel them to become phenomena. There was a third playwright who should be included in this list. He was the son of a cobbler who was educated at Cambridge University. A brilliant man who wrote groundbreaking plays while he was a spy for her majesty Queen Elizabeth I, his cause of death when he was only in his twenties would remain a mystery for centuries. Christopher (Kit) Marlowe’s story is told in Stephen Greenblatt’s latest book, “Dark Renaissance: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival.”
Marrying into the royal family is not all sunshine and rainbows. Of course, we tend to think about those who marry the king, the queen, the prince, or the princess. But we also need to consider the aunts and the uncles of the royals as part of the family. Take, for example, Arthur Plantagenet, the illegitimate son of Edward IV and the uncle of Henry VIII. His second wife, Honor Lisle, would help him rule Calais; however, she is best known for her letters and her devout Catholic faith during the Reformation in England. So why is Honor Lisle considered a controversial figure, and what was the cause of the fall of Honor and Arthur from the royal good graces? Amy Licence explores the life of Henry VIII’s step-aunt in the first full biography dedicated to Honor Lisle, which is entitled “Henry VIII’s Controversial Aunt, Honor Lisle: Her Life, Letters, and Influence on the Tudor Court.”
A single deck of cards changed the fate of generations of women. The tarot cards, created in 16th-century Italy, will connect two women separated by centuries. One was a woman in 17th-century London, originally from Milan, who used the cards to rescue women from abusive relationships. The other is a woman from modern-day London starting her life anew when she comes across an old tarot card deck with a missing card. What began as a hunt for a missing card will connect the two women and change lives forever. The cards hold secrets to the past, but will they bring hope or disaster? This is the premise for Clare Marchant’s latest dual-timeline novel, “Daughter of the Tarot.”
Adventures of a Tudor Nerd 